Squaring Off Over ‘Good Old American Con Game’

Tim Rutten’s column on American paranoia was insulting to those of us who were shocked and angered when the $122-million Green Line contract went to Sumitomo.

My ancestry is Polish/Lithuanian; my husband’s is Japanese. We are American citizens. My husband was among those incarcerated here during World War II when he was a child.

According to Rutten, “It does not require a great deal of empathy to imagine how the survivors of that infamy and their families must shudder as they listen to the brutish Japan bashing. . . . “ We don’t shudder, nor do we confuse Japanese ancestry with Japanese nationality.

What Rutten seems to perceive as racism in the uproar over the Green Line and other economic issues may instead be real concern over the trade imbalance and its impact on our country’s standard of living, which is already suffering from increasing joblessness and homelessness.

We do not consider it Japan bashing to point out that Japanese companies can compete viciously on price because they pay their employees less for longer hours, operate on smaller profit margins and pay smaller dividends.

There is no “racial component” in our indignation over the awarding of that huge contract to a Japanese firm; rather, we were astonished that such a decision could have been made in light of these hard times, when Americans must put Americans first.

A determined resolution to spend our money in our own country, on our own people, and exhorting all Americans to do the same is not racism. It’s patriotism.

EVE IKEDA

Pasadena