2 Students Shot During Carjacking Die : Violence: Parents of the two teen-agers arrive from Japan and talk of their sons’ love for America. Victims’ car is found near the shooting site.

Two teen-age college students from Japan who came to the United States to pursue their dreams of becoming filmmakers, only to be gunned down in a carjacking, died after being taken off life support systems Sunday, the day their parents arrived from Japan.

Takuma Ito and Go Matsuura, both 19, died Sunday evening, said Harbor-UCLA Medical Center spokesman Randy Foster. Both had been declared brain-dead after being shot in the back of the head in a carjacking in the parking lot of a San Pedro supermarket Friday night.

Also late Sunday, Los Angeles police said they had found the compact car that was stolen from the pair after they were shot. An anonymous caller alerted police, who found the white 1994 Honda Civic in the San Pedro area where the students were shot, police said.

The car was taken Downtown to be tested for fingerprints and other evidence, an LAPD spokesman said.

In Tokyo early today, U.S. Ambassador Walter Mondale issued a statement on behalf of the President, extending condolences to the families and stressing that such crimes do not represent everyday American life.

In Los Angeles on Sunday, the families expressed no bitterness, saying they were grateful for the good experiences their sons had had here. “He loved America,” Akihiro Ito said. On Sunday, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center was crowded with Japanese camera crews and reporters, who were covering the shooting as a top story--one that followed on the heels of several other high-profile shootings of Japanese students in the United States. The shootings have raised the fears of many Japanese parents about sending their children abroad.

At a news conference in Tokyo, Mondale said: “This is the saddest day in my time here as ambassador.” He said he hoped that the Los Angeles shootings would not diminish the desire of Japanese to travel to the United States.

“There are over 3 million Japanese who travel to the United States each year, many of them tourists, and we have over 50,000 young Japanese studying in schools. . . . Practically every one of them has a wonderful experience.

“These tragedies--such as this one over the weekend in Los Angeles and the killing of (Hattori) in Louisiana--they are just tragic from every standpoint. They give an entirely distorted picture of life in the United States. Most everyone lives a safe and fulfilling life . . . and are untouched by such horrible criminal behavior.”

Mondale noted that President Clinton had telephoned the parents of Yoshihiro Hattori, a Japanese high school student shot to death in Louisiana in 1992, and had received the Hattoris at the White House. Mondale said he was sure that the President would contact the families of the carjacking victims.

At the news conference were a group of officials and students from the Baton Rouge high school where Hattori had studied. The group had planned the trip to express their sorrow to the Hattori family. “We want the Japanese people to know that overall, the American people are a good people and that all of us aren’t violent and prone to kill,” Principal Clarence Jones said.

At Harbor-UCLA, the students’ Marymount College friends, both Japanese and American, had kept a vigil during the weekend. The Japanese students gathered quietly and told reporters they preferred to keep their grief private. Many American students wanted to express anger at the violence, and spoke with fondness of the two young men they described as fun-loving and dedicated to becoming filmmakers.

After improving their English at Marymount, Ito hoped to go to UCLA and Matsuura to USC to pursue their filmmaking studies, friends said.

“(Ito’s) hobby was becoming American,” said fellow student Erica Stenta.

Joshua Escandon, Ito’s roommate, said the Japanese student was a fan of Steven Spielberg’s work, especially his “Indiana Jones” movies. “He was a great guy. He had a wonderful personality. He was very, very funny,” Escandon said.

Matsuura’s roommate, Clayton Blocker, said he and Matsuura hit it off right away when they were assigned to share an apartment last fall. “I didn’t think it was his time to go. I don’t think he deserved to die,” Blocker said.

Ito and Matsuura’s parents flew here to be at their sons’ bedsides and to make the decision about terminating life support.

Dr. Curtis Doberstein, acting chief resident in neurosurgery at Harbor-UCLA, said both were shot at close range. The bullets did not exit their heads.

The fathers of the victims, speaking at a news conference at the hospital, struggled to convey happy memories of their sons’ dreams.

Akihiro Ito, an executive with a subsidiary of Japan Air Lines, said in Japanese that his son had told him since junior high school that “I like America. I want to go to America. I want to make movies.”

Ito said that before his son came here, he was “a little worried,” but what happened was “my child’s fate.”

“For eight months, he had an enjoyable, enjoyable experience in America. Now, we must make an effort that this kind of sad event won’t happen to Japanese young people again,” he said.

Go Matsuura was born in the United States and was in first grade when he went to Japan with his family, his father said.

“He thought America was a place where you could realize your dreams. So he came to America,” Shuji Matsuura said. “He was always saying he liked it here. We were glad.

“Then this happened. It’s too bad that his dream was broken in the America my son loved.”

His eyes downcast, Matsuura asked in Japanese: “Isn’t there something we can all do so that this doesn’t happen again?”

Spring break had emptied much of the campus of Marymount College in Rancho Palos Verdes, where flags remained at half-staff on the picturesque grounds set high above the Pacific Ocean.

“It’s a spot where no one even thinks of crime at all because it’s not a problem,” said Kevin O’Connor, assistant director of admissions. “This is a shock to everyone.”

At the Ralphs supermarket on Western Avenue in San Pedro, where the shootings occurred about 11 p.m. Friday, several bouquets of flowers had been laid in the parking lot.

With no suspects, Los Angeles police have appealed to the public for help in finding the gunman or gunmen. Detectives with the robbery-homicide unit of LAPD’s Major Crimes Section can be reached at (213) 485-2129 or (213) 485-2504.

American friends of the two young men said that this episode made them realize just how dangerous Los Angeles has become--and how the danger is taken for granted.

“I want you to put something in your article,” Stenta insisted. “We have to stop accepting this as a normal, everyday part of life. Everybody has to stop it--don’t allow it. It can’t go on like this.

“Why doesn’t Japan have problems like this? They don’t have guns on the street. We’ve got to have stronger laws or we’re going to kill each other off.”

Times staff writers Jeffrey Rabin and Ann W. O’Neill in Los Angeles and Sam Jameson in Tokyo contributed to this story.