Within hours of the first politically naive...

Within hours of the first politically naive mention of a “trade war” with Japan, Americans are being besieged by the news media with “trade war-trade war-trade war!” And of course the people-- only a trace of whom can have any inkling of the basics, much less the complexities, of this issue--eat it up. Here’s another scapegoat to ride. Who do the Japanese think they are, costing us tens of thousands of jobs, after all we’ve done for them? They’d better shape the hell up, or else!

Well, the Japanese are people who, after our atomic-bombing of them, have recovered to become a paragon of civilized society. They are universally literate, respectful of one another, hard-working, innovative, patient, soft-spoken, with national institutions of health, welfare, and child day care in place for decades. The enviable results of such self-improvement include an energetic economy, and unemployment and crime rates that are negligible. Damn them!

During the same 40 years that they (and Europe, as well) spent recuperating from World War II, we have squandered one opportunity after another to modernize and enlighten ourselves in order to join our industrial friends in progress. Instead of taking care of home business, we peaked with the Vietnam War--waged, it must be mentioned, on $1.25 per barrel oil. Now, we are in disarray. “Recovery,” at least to me, doesn’t lie in an avalanche of mega-mergers and offshore moves and cheap labor.

Someone other than ourselves is to blame, as usual. If not, why did Congress fail to turn its wrath on Chrysler when it announced moments after quotas ended that it was tripling its Japanese auto imports? Trace that one back to the bail-out, and you see the first, fat chicken come home to roost.

If, indeed, America attempts to punish Japan for its own ineptitude and greed, our other trading partners are bound to join the fray and then the stuff will really hit the fan. In the meantime, all who own cars, TVs, VCRs, cameras, stereos, watches and so on made in Japan--burn them immediately and teach those shifty Nips a lesson.

ALAN SHEAN

Santa Monica