Official Draws Fire for Attack on Japanese

The chairman of the Imperial County Board of Supervisors is under fire for launching an anti-Japanese tirade at a ceremony to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

“I’m getting sick and tired of these Japs trying to take this country over,” said Supervisor James Bucher, 60, during the presentation of a memorial plaque earlier this week to survivors of the Japanese attack. “They’ll do it one way or the other . . . through their sneak attacks or through their dollars.

“It’s about time this country wakes up and puts this country back on its feet,” Bucher said. “If we rely totally on these Japs we’re going to pay the price. We’ve already paid the price and I’m not willing to pay it a second time.”

The Japanese American Citizens League said Thursday it will ask for a formal apology. Bucher has declined to back off, saying his remarks were aimed not at Americans of Japanese descent but at “the damn Japs as a nation.”

Bucher did not return telephone calls Thursday, but his wife said she believed Bucher did not intend to retract his statements.

“We understand that there exists legitimate concern and economic issues between the two countries, but the use of race to link that debate is reprehensible,” said Jimmy Tokeshi, who heads the Japanese-American group in Los Angeles.

In Japan, the press has been warning for months that the commemoration ceremonies scheduled for Dec. 7 could trigger a new round of “Japan-bashing.” On the American side, some have argued that not all criticism of Japan’s economic policies constitutes “bashing,” nor is it all racially motivated.

Meanwhile, Japanese-American community officials have expressed fears that the intense focus on the anniversary could provoke ethnic slurs or hate attacks against Asians in this country. Such attacks have not been reported. There were, however, isolated expressions this week of American ire at Japan.

In Southern California, aviators plan to practice aerial shooting at desert targets marked with Japanese flags, a Pearl Harbor Day tradition distinguished this year by the use of live ammunition.

In addition, an Arkansas company placed advertisements in Wednesday’s editions of U.S.A. Today hawking a “Pearl Harbor Anniversary Revenge T-Shirt.” The red, white and blue shirt bears a mushroom cloud and the words, “Made in America, Tested in Japan.”

Billy Blann, owner of Delta Press Ltd. in El Dorado, Ark., said he has sold about 5,000 of the T-shirts in the past two or three years, and only added the Pearl Harbor link recently. Blann called the T-shirt “a joke.” But a Japanese American Citizens League official said the atomic bomb connection is “just not funny.”

“This T-shirt is a very sick and perverted way to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor,” said Carole Hayashino, associate director of the league’s branch in San Francisco. “This Pearl Harbor anniversary should be a time to honor those people who defended our nation, to recognize the loss of life and destruction. . . . We shouldn’t allow this type of hatred to poison the commemoration.

“It really is a joke, OK?” countered Blann. “I don’t have anything against Japanese. People make jokes about everything. Some of our leading citizens in Washington lose their jobs over it periodically. . . . All I did was put something in print that’s behind every door in America,” Blann said.

On Thursday, the Japanese American Citizens League also demanded an apology from former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke for “race-baiting” remarks about Japanese imports made Wednesday as Duke announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination.

“I’m from Louisiana. We produce rice,” Duke said. “We must go to the Japanese and say, ‘You no buy our rice, we no buy your cars.’ ”

Hayashino said she would not hold her breath waiting for an apology from Duke, who was denounced Thursday by President Bush for bigotry and racism. Nonetheless, she said. “I think we need to ask for it.”