Community Comment : ‘Grieving Over the Loss of Innocent Lives Is Not Enough’ : We all must act to rid society of gun violence. With enough courage, it can be achieved.

Once again, we Japanese faced the tragedy of innocent young men killed in America. The story is sadly familiar and comes not long after the shooting death in Louisiana of Yoshi Hattori. Like the two killed in San Pedro, Go Matsuura and Takuma Ito, Hattori was a student who had come to America full of hope and dreams, only to be slain by senseless violence. The words of Ito’s parents, “Our son loved America,” break our hearts.

Not long before the latest slayings, the courageous actions of Oskar Schindler were celebrated at the Academy Awards. And a story on Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat who saved thousands of Jewish refugees during World War II by issuing transit visas, appeared in the press. Wasn’t the message overwhelmingly told in “Schindler’s List”: “He who saves a single life saves the entire world?” Yet America allows so many innocent lives to be lost in peace time. Didn’t Sugihara choose to follow his conscience rather than orders? Yet Americans allow special-interest groups to keep them from doing the same.

America has always celebrated celebrating the courageous deeds of the past. But what about courage today? Steven Spielberg said in a recent interview, “We just can’t sit back and be inactive and simply hope things are going to turn out all right for our children. We can’t just sit by and hope the guns and drugs will go away.” The former chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Leo Melamed, who was saved by Sugihara, said to me in a letter recently: “We owe these representatives of your civilization an incalculable debt. Their actions preserved a small portion of human dignity.”

It is painfully obvious that gun violence is destroying your society. We see occasional displays of courage, like from those who advocate strong gun control. I helped the parents of Yoshi Hattori with their petition drive asking President Clinton to work for gun control.

What is needed now, however, is the awakening of an entire society. What you must do now--as Oskar Schindler and Chiune Sugihara did--is to follow your conscience and repay the debt you owe them for their courageous actions, which, after all, were taken in far more difficult situations than America faces today.

The tragedy of gun violence is human made. We should never accept it as an everyday part of our lives. For those of us who came from a country where there is very little gun violence, it is amazing how slow American lawmakers are to show political courage on this issue. I have lived here long enough to know that most Americans are deeply concerned about the proliferation of guns and show genuine compassion for victims of gun violence. The recent outpouring of emotion for the police officers killed in the South Bay and in Los Angeles were prime examples. I, too, wept for them.

But why are you so moved by the stories of Oskar Schindler and Chiune Sugihara? Isn’t it because they acted rather than passively stood by?jGrieving over the loss of innocent lives is not enough. You need to act. It may take a generation for the United States to rid society of guns. With political courage, however, it can be achieved. Those who lost their lives to gun violence, whether they are U.S. citizens or foreigners, deserve nothing less than immediate action.