Family’s Anti-Racism Fight Stalled : Japanese Educators’ Valuable Research Is Lost With Luggage at LAX

A 17-day American fact-finding trip by a Japanese family waging a do-it-yourself fight against anti-black racism in their country has had an unhappy ending in Los Angeles.

Luggage containing journals and videotapes chronicling the family’s visits with such prominent blacks as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, Coretta Scott King and Baltimore Orioles baseball manager Frank Robinson disappeared moments after their arrival at Los Angeles International Airport.

Japanese educators Toshiji and Kimiko Arita and their 10-year-old son, Hajime, had hoped to use their diaries and tapes collected during their six-city visit to contrast race relations in the United States with those in Japan.

Family Alarmed

The family formed an Osaka-based organization called the Assn. to Stop Racism Against Blacks last year after becoming alarmed at the popularity of dolls and other Japanese merchandise that depicted blacks in an unflattering light.

Although most Japanese deny harboring racist attitudes, the couple discovered that such stereotypes as black-faced mannequins with bones in their noses were commonly displayed in stores.

Several Japanese companies have reacted to the fledgling 40-member association’s complaints by halting the sale of such things as “Little Black Sambo” storybooks and bubble gum and soft drink packaging decorated with caricatures of blacks.

When the Aritas’ crusade caught the attention of black leaders in this country, the Black Business Council, a nationwide group, invited the family to meet prominent black figures.

The family ended its cross-country tour Thursday in Los Angeles, but the loss of the irreplaceable notes and videotapes made it difficult for them to enjoy last-day visits with Mayor Tom Bradley and pop singer Michael Jackson.

The materials were in one of two bags that disappeared late Tuesday night somewhere between the airport and the Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotel. The Aritas and their council escorts had driven to the hotel on one shuttle bus while their 14 pieces of luggage were sent on another.

‘Not Mistaken’

“We have learned through our trip that we were not mistaken in trying to stop racism against blacks,” Toshiji Arita, 42, told Bradley at the mayor’s City Hall office.

“We were going to report to the media and the public what we have seen here,” he added, “but not having the documents and materials will make it very difficult.”

Bradley promised the family that Los Angeles police would help hunt for the two missing bags--one of which contained notebooks tracing the association’s work, a date book with names and addresses and business cards of American black leaders, and video- and audiotapes recorded during visits with black American dignitaries.

He said that a $1,000 reward offered by the Black Business Council may spur the return of the bags--described as a soft-sided green nylon shoulder bag with gray band and a bright blue boy’s duffel bag. They were marked with yellow stickers bearing a Washington address and with white plastic name tags in English and Japanese.

Bradley predicted that the family’s meetings with black leaders would help “dramatize the need for better understanding in Japan of the contributions African-Americans have made” in this country.

“That luggage is of no value to anyone else,” he said. “But it is of great value to this family that has worked so hard.”

Marriott executive Julian Monsarrat said hotel security officers have checked with other hotels and with airport police and baggage handlers for the missing luggage but had come up empty-handed.

Arita, meanwhile, said his family will take a lesson from American black civil rights leaders if forced to resume its crusade without the American materials.

“It will be very difficult,” he said. “But of course we must overcome it.”