
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 25, 1993                   TAG: 9305250138
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: TOKYO                                LENGTH: Medium

VERDICT WORSENS U.S. IMAGE IN JAPAN LA. ACQUITTAL IN STUDENT'S FATAL SHOOTING

There was no rioting in the streets after the verdict of acquittal, no burning or looting - that's not how things are done in Japan. And yet, the verdict in the Baton Rouge, La., Halloween shooting may well have as much social impact here as the first Rodney King trial had in the United States.

When a jury on Sunday acquitted the man who shot and killed a 16-year-old Japanese exchange student in October, the verdict immediately became Japan's top news. Virtually all Japanese media reports took the verdict as confirmation of their worst stereotypes about the United States: a sick country that has lost its greatness amid nagging social problems and constant fear.

"With the collapse of their economy and tension between the races, Americans spend their lives full of anger and fear," wrote Hosei University Professor Rinjiro Sotei, in a typical comment. "And they really believe that their guns will protect them."

Japanese commentators on Monday constantly compared their own gun-free and largely crime-free society with America. "Japan has always looked up to America," said TV-Asahi commentator Takashi Wada. "But now, which society is more mature? The idea that you protect people by shooting guns is barbarian."

Such comments reflect the sharp recent decline in respect the Japanese have traditionally held toward the United States, long their chief ally and mentor in world affairs. The change in national mood has clearly been accelerated by the verdict in the Baton Rouge killing, known in Japan as the "Freeze Case."

Yoshihiro Hattori, a foreign-exchange student, was looking for a Halloween party and accidentally went to the wrong house. The homeowner, 32-year-old Rodney Peairs, shouted "Freeze!" - a command the Japanese boy evidently did not understand - and then fired at point-blank range with a .44 Magnum pistol.

Initially, the U.S. media treated the case as just another accidental shooting - that is, hardly news at all in a country that had about 10,000 handgun killings last year. But the horrified reaction in Japan prompted Americans, too, to follow the case, and it became a major cause for groups on both sides of the gun-control debate.

Nonetheless, a recurrent theme in Monday's Japanese reports was that Peairs won acquittal because most Americans consider it "normal" to shoot and kill an unknown visitor at the door.

The Japanese TV networks have repeatedly shown interviews of Peairs' neighbors, describing the defendant as a fine person. Countless interviews with ordinary Americans have been broadcast since the verdict, and virtually all those interviewed have said Peairs did the right thing in shooting the boy, because he wanted to protect his family.

There also seemed to be a sense among the Japanese that government in America somehow supported the shooting of the exchange student.

This view was strengthened when Louisiana Lt. Gov. Melinda Schegmann, in an interview with ABC's "Nightline" that was broadcast nationally in Japan, seemed to express as much concern about her state's tourism industry as about the boy who was killed. "We have to remember," she said, that last year Louisiana "had 500,000 international visitors and most people hopefully went home with a positive attitude."

by CNB