Longshoremen Outline Program After 2 Slain in San Pedro : Reaction: Union leader says group will lobby to create jobs for harbor-area youths. Rally is at spot where Japanese students were shot.

Los Angeles longshoremen gathered at noon Friday at the spot where two Japanese students were gunned down last week to mourn the deaths and to hear their union’s promises to fight crime by creating jobs and promoting tolerance.

To applause, David Arian, president of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union, outlined a union-backed program intended to stem violence in the Los Angeles Harbor area where many union members live and work.

“All around us we see death taking place,” Arian told about 150 longshoremen and others gathered in the Ralphs grocery store parking lot in San Pedro. It was there that Marymount College students Takuma Ito and Go Matsuura, both 19, were fatally shot during a carjacking March 25.

Arian announced that the union would lobby to create jobs for harbor-area youths, support suitable penalties for crime, launch cultural exchange programs and plant trees in memory of the slain students.

“Don’t mourn, organize!” Arian urged members.

The gathering, part memorial service and part union rally, illustrated again how the shootings have shaken the harbor community of San Pedro, 23 miles south of Downtown. Some residents say they are chagrined and worried that because of the international publicity catalyzed by the students’ deaths, their community has been unfairly cast as a crime capital.

Some who attended the rally said they want to make clear to the Japanese that they oppose violence.

“We came here to show that we are not all crazy gun-toting people in this country,” said Ernie Peterson, 60, of Lomita, retired from the Merchant Marines.

Some have expressed concern that the publicity will damage Japanese trade in the harbor area. Japanese cargo accounted for about a quarter of the cargo tonnage passing through Los Angeles Harbor in 1992.

“The perception of Los Angeles is critical because Japan is our largest trading partner in terms of the amount of cargo moving in and out of here from Japan,” said Jeff Leong, spokesman for the Port of Los Angeles. To date, there is no indication that Japanese shippers are diverting cargo to other West Coast ports, Leong said.

Steve Bebich, secretary and business agent at ILWU Local 63, said many jobs depend on Japanese business, and he wonders if the shootings could make shippers think twice about Los Angeles.

But most longshoremen interviewed at the Friday rally said they were there not out of fear that business could be lost, but to take a stand against violent crime. Several said they agree with Arian that a program to create jobs could help keep youths out of trouble.

“If you got a job to go to, you don’t have time to mess up,” said Norman Tuck, secretary-treasurer of ILWU Local 13, which has 2,700 area members. He said he is talking to industries in the area about job programs.

Although the rally was prompted by the deaths of the two Japanese college students, Tuck said: “We have to make sure that we don’t exclude the youths that live and grew up in this area.”

As the rally ended, Ronnie Escalante, 24, of San Pedro, who described himself as a former gang member, noted that no such outpouring followed the death of his younger brother in a San Pedro drive-by shooting two years ago. Youths in the area need jobs, he added.

“The port of San Pedro is so rich. How come we can’t get these jobs?” Escalante asked.

A passerby suggested he organize a meeting with the union, and Escalante promised to try.