Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 7, 1992                   TAG: 9203090195
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

NO JOKE

Touring a Roller Bearing Co. of America plant in his state, the senator told workers: "You should draw a mushroom cloud and put underneath it, `Made in America by lazy and illiterate Americans and tested in Japan.' "

The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 were no joke. Hollings' remark wasn't funny.

Hollings is up for re-election, which may help explain why he would indulge in the kind of Japan-bashing that is growing more widespread these days.

There are any number of good explanations for the phenomenon, including good-old racism, growing economic uncertainty, and the loss of the Soviet Union as an enemy against which to find our place in the world.

There are no good excuses.

Hollings says he was trying to make the point that Yoshio Sakurauchi, speaker of the House in Japan's parliament, was wrong when he called American workers lazy and stupid.

Sakurauchi was wrong. So was Hollings. Now, enough of this word war.

The senator's insensitive remark came amid evidence - including a major new study by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights - of rising prejudice, hostility and violence against Asian Americans.

Americans should be above such bashing and bigotry, above such stupidity as blaming Japan for our economic ails.

Our leaders, especially, should be above it.