Latino Group to Boycott Goods From Japan

One of the nation’s largest Latino organizations, angered by inflammatory remarks by Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, has called on Americans to join a boycott of Japanese products. Gabriel Flores, chairman of international affairs of the American G.I. Forum, said Friday that Nakasone’s recent apology was not enough to appease the Latino community.

“There is no genuine apology on the part of the Japanese prime minister possible or acceptable to the Hispanic community of the United States,” Flores said at a Los Angeles news conference.

Flores was reacting to a statement by Nakasone on Sept. 22 in which he said the level of intelligence in the United States was lower than that of Japan because “of a considerable number of blacks, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans.”

Support Pledged

Alan Clayton, civil rights coordinator for the California League of United Latin American Citizens, and Gina Alonso, a spokeswoman for the Mexican-American Political Assn. of California, said their organizations have pledged to support the G.I. Forum’s call for a boycott.

Flores said the point was to teach an “economic lesson” to the Japanese people for at least a year. “Hispanics are not fools,” he said. “We will not spend our hard-earned dollars to enrich a foreign society that considers us inferior. We appeal to all decent Americans of good will to support our moral protest.”

He said the forum, which has about 165,000 members, plans its first major public demonstration for Oct. 12 in cities throughout the country, and meetings will be held with other key Latino groups to intensify the boycott.