Language Student in Tokyo : Californian Listed Among 6 Americans on Japan Jet

A Southern California man who was aboard the Japanese jumbo jet that slammed into a mountain near Tokyo was in Japan studying the language, his sister-in-law said today.

Ward Wallach, 26, of Los Alamitos was one of six Americans presumed dead aboard the Japan Air Lines 747, the airline said.

Ginger Wallach of Los Angeles said her brother-in-law was a graduate student at the University of Tokyo and had been in Japan for four years. He was flying to Osaka for a seminar.

“He was a straight-A student,” Ginger Wallach said. “We all used to joke about what he was going to do with it (studying Japanese). He really loved Japan. He hoped to be able to teach English at the university level in Japan.”

Wallach said her brother-in-law was the youngest of three sons.

Two From Colorado

Airline spokesmen said the other American passengers were two Colorado men and three members of a Korean-American family.

They were identified as Edward Anderson, 47, Englewood, Colo., and Michael Hanson, 40, of Aurora, Colo. Both were employed by Stearns Catalytic Co., Denver. The family, whose home address was not given, included Okja Kim, Scott Kim and Christopher Kim.

In Japan today, hundreds of relatives of other passengers hurried to the mountainous area northwest of Tokyo where the jet went down, praying that their loved ones had survived.

“I don’t know if I can climb that mountain, but I want to go there and see,” said Tsugiko Sato, 60, president of Osaka-Kobe University in Osaka. His 29-year-old daughter, Motoko, was aboard the plane, Kyodo News Service reported.

Flown to Tokyo

Sato was one of 803 relatives who flew to Tokyo this morning and boarded buses to the crash site in central Japan, 70 miles northwest of Tokyo.

Noriaki Odani, assistant manager of the airline’s Osaka Airport office, said by telephone that a stream of relatives was pouring into the mountainous region, seeking word about their loved ones.

Earlier today, 255 other family members boarded seven buses and 10 taxis chartered by JAL for the five-hour road trip to the area, Odani said.

“I just pray for a miracle,” Kyodo quoted one relative as saying before boarding the JAL bus. “I will go to the site for confirmation about my brother-in-law.”

21 Foreigners Aboard

JAL was making arrangements for relatives of the 21 foreign passengers aboard the plane to fly to Tokyo, said airline spokesman Geoffrey Tudor.

“They are coming from Hong Kong, West Germany and I don’t know where else,” he said.

Sachiko Yoshizaki, niece of a passenger whose wife and daughter were found alive, told reporters, “I am very happy, but I am wondering if other people were found alive, especially my uncle.”