ON THE SIDELINES : ‘Sambo’ Purge Tied to Olympic Bid

A Japanese city bidding for the 1998 Winter Olympics has advised schools and libraries to destroy materials featuring the “Little Black Sambo” character in order to improve the city’s international image, officials said today.

The municipal office in Nagano, central Japan, late last month requested that the city’s schools and libraries destroy all books, pictures and educational tools involving “Little Black Sambo,” a story criticized as racist.

Sambo, originally meaning a person who was half Indian and half black, has been used as a degrading name for blacks for decades.

“It is important for a better international reputation for Nagano,” which is bidding to host the 1998 Olympic Games, a municipal official said.

The city maintains everything that carries the word “Sambo” or cartoons of the boy should be banned regardless of content. But Nagano’s library officials said references describing racial problems in the story should not be banned.