The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour

MR. LEHRER: Good evening. Leading the news this Monday, the U.S. government moved against Saddam Hussein's personal financial empire, Iraqi troops forced thousands of Kurdish rebels to retreat, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled a person cannot be excluded from a jury because of race. We'll have the details in our News Summary in a moment. Roger Mudd is in Washington tonight. Roger.

MR. MUDD: After the News Summary we have Charlayne Hunter-Gault's interview with a key ally in the Gulf coalition, President Turgut Ozal of Turkey. Next, we focus on the East European election that the Communists won. Then Paul Solman delivers the first in his four part series on the cultural misperceptions between Japanese and Americans, and finally Jim Fisher's essay on a good cop. NEWS SUMMARY

MR. LEHRER: Saddam Hussein's wealth was the target of the U.S. government today. The Treasury Department accused 52 businesses and 37 individuals of being fronts for Hussein and the Iraqi government and made it illegal to do business with them. The assets of two American companies on the list were seized. They were Bay Industries, an engineering firm in Santa Monica, California, and Matrix Churchill Corporation, a Cleveland, Ohio machine tools company. Deputy Treasury Sec. John Robson announced the actions at a Washington news conference. He said this about how the companies and individuals helped Iraq.

DEPUTY TREAS. SEC. ROBSON: For over the last decade, Saddam's strengthened the sinews of his war machine through a sophisticated network of front companiesand Asians. Through it he got weapons, spare parts, machine tools, and raw materials necessary to sustain his militarized stated. And through it he may have hidden away ill gotten fruits of embezzlements from the Iraqi people. We want the network exposed and we want it utilized.

MR. LEHRER: Robson said no one knows exactly how much the Iraqi leader may have in hidden assets. U.S. and Kuwaiti government investigators have said Saddam Hussein skimmed about $10 billion in oil profits over the past 10 years. Roger.

MR. MUDD: Kurdish rebels abandoned their positions in cities across Northern Iraq today as Saddam Hussein's government forces moved in. Baghdad said its troops had retaken the last major cities in the North held by the rebels. The government said rebellion in the South was put down several days ago. To prove it, the government took foreign journalists to the South and the City of Karbala. We have a report narrated by Louise Bates of Worldwide Television News.

MS. BATES: Iraqi government troops are firmly in control of Karbala 50 miles South of Baghdad. Saddam Hussein has reimposed his will over the area held briefly by Shiite rebels and now is confident enough to allow Western reporters to tour there. What's left is destruction on a grand scale, shops burned and looted and everywhere evidence of a fierce battle with tanks and missiles. Badly damaged too was Karbala's imposing Al Hussein mosque. Iraqi officials say rebels used the sacred interior as a chamber of torture and execution, a noose remains. In the nearby town of Najaf, testimony of similar atrocities. Small rooms in the mosque's library were transformed into cells, Arabic script written in blood. Just who was responsible for these atrocities is the subject of claim and counterclaim. The number of innocent civilian deaths is not known. The government puts it around 30, an unbelievably low figure. Whatever the number, the result is a community with nothing, no power, food shortages, and, it seems, little money to start again. The streets appeared calm, but the authorities know that many families here supported the Shiite rebels or the criminals, as the region's governor calls them. What reprisals may face the community can only be guessed at.

MR. MUDD: A Kurdish rebel leader in Iraq today said his people were facing a genocide worse than the 1988 poison gas attack which killed 5,000 Kurds during the Iran-Iraq War. Despite appeals from the rebels, the U.S. and Britain agreed today not to help. The agreement came in London at a meeting between Sec. of State James Baker and British Foreign Sec. Douglas Hurd. However, the State Department announced today it would meet with Kurdish American groups to discuss the plight of the Kurds in Iraq.

MR. LEHRER: The U.S. ambassador talked today to the president of Lebanon about the release of Western hostages. Amb. Ryan Crocker told reporters in Beirut after that meeting the time has long since past for the immediate and unconditional release of all the hostages. Crocker repeated the U.S. position that no conditions be attached to a release of those hostages. He declined comment on recent press reports about the imminent release of one hostage. Six of the twelve Westerners being held are Americans. The kidnappers are mostly affiliated with pro-Iranian terrorist groups. The Israeli government today announced new measures to stop Palestinian attacks and Jews. They include prohibiting private vehicles to enter Israel from the occupied territories. The actions were approved by Israel's inner cabinet Sunday after heated debate over ways to stop recent knife attacks on Jews by Palestinians. The rules would permit the expulsion of Palestinians who encourage such attacks and the destruction of their homes.

MR. MUDD: At least 3 million Americans began earning more money today as the federal minimum wage increased 45 cents an hour to $4.25 an hour. It amounts to another $18 a week and raises the earnings of a full-time minimum wage worker to $8500 a year. It was the second step of a two part increase enacted by the Congress in 1989. The Supreme Court ruled today that people cannot be excluded from a jury because of their race. In a seven to two decision, the Court said racial discrimination in the selection process violates the Constitutional right of equal protection. The case from Ohio involved a white man convicted of two murders after the prosecution excluded seven blacks from the jury. Dissenting from today's decision were Justices Rehnquist and Scalia.

MR. LEHRER: The Communists today claimed victory in Albania, following the first free elections there in more than 60 years. Albania is the last hard line Communist state left in Europe. Anti- Communist protesters took to the streets today to denounce those election results. Opposition leaders conceded they had won only 1/3 of the vote, but they said the Communists would fall from power within months anyhow. We'll have more on the Albania story later in the program. The Soviet parliament today authorized a state of emergency and the deployment of troops in a section of the Republic of Georgia today. The area has been torn by ethnic violence. The action came one day after Georgian voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum calling for secession from the Soviet Union. Food stores in Moscow were closed today to stop panic buying on the eve of price increases. City officials warned of unrest when prices of food, clothing, and other goods go up 1000 percent tomorrow. The price hikes are part of Pres. Gorbachev's economic reform program.

MR. MUDD: Martha Graham, one of the founders of modern dance, died at her New York home today. She was 96. A spokesman for her school of contemporary dance said she died of cardiopulmonary arrest. That's it for our News Summary. Now it's on to a News Maker interview with the Turkish President, a discussion about the weekend election in Albania, and the beginning of a four part series on cultural clashes with Japan. NEWS MAKER

MR. LEHRER: We lead tonight with the President of Turkey Turgut Ozal. He ended a 10 day visit to the United States today. Last week he met with President Bush.

PRES. BUSH: President Ozal and I have had a chance to go over many issues, bilateral issues, and of course we talked about the Gulf area. I had an opportunity to thank him eye ball to eye ball for the best communication, I believe, that any two countries could possibly have had. For his advice and for his steadfast adherence to principle from day one. The Turkish Government never wavered one inch.

MR. LEHRER: Turkey played an important role in the coalition against Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. It cut off the Iraq oil pipeline and allowed American planes to use a NATO base in Turkey to strike targets in Iraq among other things. Now that the war is over a big problem for Turkey is its relationship to the Kurdish opposition inside of Iraq. Turkey's Government has been at odds with the country's sizable Kurdish minority for decades. Before Mr. Ozal flew home to Turkey today Charlayne Hunter-Gault talked with him in New York

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: Mr. President thank you for joining us. Today'snews is that Iraq reportedly has the upper hand in the civil war against the opposition forces that are inside the country. What do you see happening in the coming days and weeks?

PRES. OZAL: I think sometimes it was an iron hand that managed the country but even under this condition of there is an uprising then there is a very much unlike of, him and probably this many not continue but it may pop up some time later on.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: In other words you expect him to put down the uprising?

PRES. OZAL: I think he may put down the fire for the time being but what has happened in the last twelve years. Nine years before the country is destroyed completely. There is no real infra structure. How they will be able to do it. How they are going to reconstruct. I mean oil revenues when we talk about but how much will they pay for war reparations. And many people will come and will ask.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: Including Turkey.

PRES. OZAL: Yes it includes Turkey somewhat. Turkey is not important compared with what is done in Kuwait and other areas.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: But you will press?

PRES. OZAL: Yes we have something to be paid. They know it. That is not very important amount compared to the total amount. But I would like to tell you. If a President puts his country in this position how he can continue I don't understand it. And logically it is impossible but that is the reason an uprising is coming because of that.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: But what about the uprising now. I heard you say earlier in an interview on television that you did not carry a message from Saddam Hussein but there were reports that you carried a message from Saddam asking President Bush not to support through arms or assistance the forces attacking his government.

PRES. OZAL: I think that was completely fabricated I should say because we had not talked much about what is going on in Iraq.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: Did you give any advice to President Bush how to handle it?

PRES. OZAL: Only this was talked much before the President. I told Mr. Baker when he visited Turkey before coming to the UNited States.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: And you advice was?

PRES. OZAL: Just had a talk about what is going on. That is all. And I have no advice about it because we don't want to meddle with the affairs inside Iraq. They are neighbors.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: But there are wide spread reports that you and President Bush got along famously during the conflict. You gave great advice.

PRES. OZAL: Yes that is true.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: I am sure that hasn't stopped at this point and this is such a touchy issue here. You gave him no advice at all on how to deal with the opposition forces.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: You see there is already a United Nations mandate. I think that President Bush has to follow that mandate and in addition to that if people after the war try to tell why you didn't go another two days or three days. Why didn't you complete the victory. I think this is nonsense because the idea was to accomplish this thing as quick as possible with a minimum loss of life. That was what I saw. And when President Bush decided there will be a cease fire proposed and then all of the UNited Nations Security Council decision was accepted by Iraq and what can he do about it any more. Now coming to the ranks of the people, the Kurdish people or the Shiite. That is a different color.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: But there are those who are making the argument inside this country as well as outside that the United States encouraged this opposition and then deserted it. That the United States led the opposition to believe that as a part of the cease fire it would not allow Iraq to fly its helicopters. Now those helicopters are destroying villages, people, creating havoc inside the country and putting down the rebellion. The argument is that the United States has abandoned its moral position and its authority.

PRES. OZAL: This argument it seems to me is more political. I mean political opposition may put this. At the beginning I know many people on the same side trying not to go to war and to go with the embargo. I remember those discussions in the United States.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: So you are saying it is not valid.

PRES. OZAL: It is political in that nature because if you go there will be other arguments I tell you that you will be too much involved inside Iraq. It may become not exactly a Vietnam but you have to get the whole country to be controlled. How can you do that. Certainly the UNited States would like to see a more democratic government. I also wish to see a more democratic government in Iraq. This is a wish but we are not going to realize this I mean using force.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: But what would be wrong for the U.S. to prevent those helicopters from flying in order to prevent. I mean haven't enough people died in the area.

PRES. OZAL: Maybe that is one point as far as I understand Commander Schwarzkopf said I was somewhat mislead.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: I think that he said that he was suckered in to it.

PRES. OZAL: Yes.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: In to letting the helicopters.

PRES. OZAL: I was almost the same opinion they should not use the helicopters. May be the political side should work and may be tell something to the Iraqis that those peoples rights to become first class citizens of Iraq should be obtained. This could be dome not by force but by pressuring, some political pressures. I think they already told they are going to make a democratic system. Let us see what is this democratic system.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: But from what you have seen in the last few weeks is there any indication that this is going to happen?

PRES. OZAL: That is very difficult to see. I mean experience in the previous years shows very clearly that is not the case. I know in 1988 there has been a few of the Kurdish people moving out of this chemical warfare and coming to Turkey.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: From the chemical attacks.

PRES. OZAL: Coming to Turkey 60,000. We may be facing the same type of fleeing from Iraq.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: How worrisome is that to you particularly given the fact that Turkey has had a lot of problems with the Kurds. Is the prospect of the Kurdish opposition gaining the upper hand. Does that prospect worry you at all.

PRES. OZAL: No it doesn't worry us and I will tell you why. Because we might have more Kurdish ethnic population than the other countries but Turkey is on democratic, Moslem but Secular and also free market country in the area. And we have an economic condition much better compared to the vicinity there for what ever the ethnic origin of citizens they live under much more sound economic conditions compared around us. And therefore I don't see any problem.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: How do respond to an argument that could be made that a weakened Saddam is still preferable to an Iraqi State in which Kurds participate as leaders in the Government. I mean wouldn't than be better for Turkey than an independent state?

PRES. OZAL: We talk some of these opposition leader we said that you do not want a separate state. You should not be aiming in on that because you should not be aiming on that because historically there is no separate Kurdish State. And changing the borders in the area would be very difficult because it includes not only Turkey but also Syria, Iraq, Iran and part of the Soviet Union. That is impossible. We would like to see Kurdish people live in Iraq and in other countries peacefully as a good citizen of that country and have the same human rights as the other citizens. This change is in a positive direction to the present world condition about human rights mainly and giving them much more importance not only inside Turkey but also outside of Turkey.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: How long can regional stability in the area be maintained if Iraq remains in chaos or is that a factor now in the post Gulf War equation?

PRES. OZAL: I think no body like a very important country in the area like Iraq should be in chaos and I think that should be ended one way or another in the coming month or months. It should not be a new Lebanon. And therefore Iraq would not be Lebanized provided that outside powers should not interfere with inside affairs.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: What outside powers are you talking about and how do you see preventing that happening. I mean do you feel that the U.S. has to maintain a long terms presence in the region for that?

PRES. OZAL: Not in Iraq probably. I mean not in Iraq.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: But in the region?

PRES. OZAL: In the region may be some Naval presence and some Air Force. That would be sufficient.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: U.S.?

PRES. OZAL: U.S. But the outside powers like the UNited States, like Europe. like Soviet Union which as far as I understand that sales of arms is done 90 percent by the 5 members of the Security Council which are the permanent members. And therefore they should not sell arms. They should not be involved in the area. To become a much more peaceful area they should not sell especially unconventional.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: But the U.S. has even agreed with new arms arrangements with Turkey?

PRES. OZAL: That is different. We are in that sense a NATO country. I should draw a line in there.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: Let me ask you about the other conflict that we discussed when we spoke in Ankara just after the invasion last August and you mentioned that the long terms issues the Arab, Israeli conflict and other Arab issues were going to have to be resolved. Where do you think that stands now in the light of all the things that have happened in the Gulf and what do you think the U.S. should do.

PRES. OZAL: Probably the credibility of the United States has increased substantially after this Gulf War. In addition to that I say everybody in the area because we had a coalition that fought for the Gulf and now is optimistic that peace may be in reach and therefore we should continue on this momentum. That is the reason I say. But if you forget if you indecisive then we will lose time and there will be more problems among the Arabs.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: Finally Mr. President every one was saying back in August that as a result of this conflict the Middle East would never be the same again. When you look back on it today what in brief are the lessons of this conflict and do you agree that the Middle East has changed forever?

PRES. OZAL: In my opinion the winds of democracy have come to the area. It should not be the same as the standards of democracy in this country. Even 50 years ago you didn't have these standards. We can see similar things in Kuwait, may be other countries around it. And Turkey is a good example for the rest of the countries in the area. And I think democratic system will find a way to go in to this part of the World and it will be helpful for stabilizing provided that the economic configuration improves in the area.

MS. HUNTER-GAULT: Mr. President thank you for joining us.

PRES. OZAL: Thank you.

MR.MUDD: Still ahead on the Newshour Albania's elections and the clashing U.S. Japanese cultures. FOCUS - CHOOSING COMMUNISM

MR. MUDD: Next tonight free elections in Albania, which of all the Eastern European nations has held out longest against them. The Balkan country hasn't seen anything like a real election in more than 60 years. Albania was the last Stalinist holdout in Eastern Europe. Only last year did street demonstrators force the Communist government to announce reforms and promise elections. Albania's Communist rulers kept it cut off from the rest of the world since taking power after World War II. The country made rare headlines last summer when thousands of Albanians tried to escape both poverty and dictatorship by fleeing to Italy. In response to political and economic pressure, the government agreed to allow free elections to parliament. The balloting was yesterday. For more on that, a report narrated by Louise Bates of Worldwide Television News.

MS. BATES: No victory speech from Pres. Alia. That task fell to a party spokesman. Ballots were still being counted, he said, but it looked as if the Communists, the Party of Labor, as they're called, would control about 2/3 of seats in the new parliament and called it an important victory, one that proved that the people trusted the party. But opposition leader Seli Berisha scoffed at that claim.

SELI BERISHA, Opposition Leader: That the election were not free, the time too short, the advantages of the PLA were considerate, and many people in the countryside do not realize that it was possible to vote against the party state.

MS. BATES: The scene outside his democracy party headquarters as the first encouraging results came in, people delirious at the prospect of escape from decades of repression. But the early lead in Tirana evaporated as results came in from rural areas. Western observers disputed opposition claims the vote wasn't fair and free.

MARCELLE LENTZ-CORNETTE, Election Observer: Before we saw the lists, we saw the full station, we spoke to the people and I must say it was absolutely regular.

MS. BATES: Nothing yet from Pres. Alia inside a heavily guarded official residence. Without a seasoned parliament, his future could be in doubt. It will be up to the new legislature to determine his role in a changing Albania.

MR. LEHRER: For some more light on the Albanian elections, we turn tonight to Nicholas Pano, Professor of History at Western Illinois University. Dr. Pano's specialty is the history of Eastern Europe, in particular the politics of Albania. He is the son of Albanian parents and was in Albania just in December, when the riots in Toronto erupted. Prof. Pano joins us from a studio on the university campus in Macomb, Illinois. Good evening. Can you tell me, sir, whether democracy has now arrived in Albania?

DR. PANO: I think it's too early to say with any sense of finality that democracy has come to Albania, but I think it is certain that a multiparty political system has taken root within the country.

MR. MUDD: Because of the results of the free elections and the fact that they were generally thought to be free, can the Communist Party now claim that it has brought democracy to Albania?

DR. PANO: I'm sure the Communist Party will make that claim. The important thing that we'll have to be watching in thenext few months is whether or not the Communist Party does follow the precepts of democracy in establishing the new political order in Albania.

MR. MUDD: Dr. Pano, what have you learned about the politics of Albania from yesterday's returns?

DR. PANO: Well, it appears that there are two Albanias. There is the urban Albania, where you have your workers, your intellectuals, your generally well educated segments of the population, and then there is the rural Albania, where there is a good deal of political apathy, political and social conservatism, and there's also the problem of the various political parties being able to communicate with some of the remote regions of the country. And I think the dichotomy between the two Albanias is going to have to be addressed, especially by the leadership of the opposition.

MR. MUDD: Why did the Democratic Party do so poorly in the countryside, in the rural areas?

DR. PANO: Well, first of all, you have to realize the Democratic Party was formed only in December. It did not really have very much opportunity to campaign in the countryside. It did gives its initial emphasis to developing a political structure in the cities. And then there is the social and political conservatism in the countryside. Many of the Albanians in the countryside have been given private plots. They've been given additional cattle. They've been allowed to sell products on the free markets, farmer markets that have been established throughout the country, and many of them are satisfied with this kind of progress. Also, some of them are afraid. I think the Communist Party took advantage of the naivety of these people to spread horror stories of what might happen to them if the Democratic Party were to win.

MR. MUDD: Is it fair to say that the Communist Party in Albania is the party of the status quo? Are they the conservatives then?

DR. PANO: I would say that they probably are the more conservative element within the country. I don't think any party in Albania can be status quo. Albania is very desirous of entering the European community. The Albanians need economic and technical assistance from abroad. And it's been made very clear that unless the Albanians are willing to make changes, both in their political system as well as in their economic structure, this assistance, this community that Albania so desperately needs is not going to be realized.

MR. MUDD: Dr. Pano, with the Democratic Party having won perhaps only 75 seats out of the 250 in the parliament, what sort of leverage does it have on the Communists?

DR. PANO: I think one of the interesting developments that we're going to have to watch in the Albanian parliament will be the ability of the democrats to cooperate with some of the more progressive elements of the Albanian Party of Labor. It may well be that if a more conservative leadership emerges, if, for example, that Amiz Alia is replaced by a more conservative individual, such as Jelu Joni, or others, that there might be a break up in the cohesion of the Party of Labor, and this I think might enable the opposition forces to exercise leverage, to perhaps form a coalition with dissident Communists to pursue more enlightened policies in the country.

MR. MUDD: But are there enough dissident Communists to form a coalition? The Democratic Party has already said no coalition.

DR. PANO: Right, but I think we're going to have to watch and see what the dynamics, what kind of political dynamics develop within the legislature. There are going to be some very serious economic issues to address. Obviously, the population wants some sweeping reforms. They would like to see the army depoliticize. They want to see a less active secret police regime. If some of these basic concerns of the people are not addressed by the Communist majority, you may well see the break up in the unity of the Communist Party and the emergence of this kind of coalition politics that I've been describing in the people's assembly.

MR. MUDD: Tell me about the Democratic Party, the newly formed one. Are the members of that party genuine Democrats, or are they sort of born again Communists?

DR. PANO: Many of the leaders are the sons and daughters of prominent Albanian Communist leaders. Most of them apparently well educated, many have had the opportunity to travel abroad, many have recognized the need for fundamental changes within Albania, both economic and political and social changes, and I do think that many of them have become genuine Democrats. In fact, I would say the vast majority of the leadership are strongly committed to Democratic ideals and to free market principles and economics.

MR. MUDD: Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Nicholas Pano of Western Illinois University.

DR. PANO: Thank you. SERIES - CULTURE CLASH

MR. LEHRER: Now we begin a special series on the storm between two friends, the United States and Japan. This week, Commerce Sec. Bob Mosbacher is in Japan with a group of U.S. corporate executives to try and bolster U.s. exports there, and later in the week, Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu will meet with Pres. Bush in California. Their agenda will include the sore point of the Japanese contribution to the Gulf War. The U.S.-Japanese relationship has been one of friendly misunderstanding for years. Over the next few days, Business Correspondent Paul Solman will examine the whys and what next of that relationship. Part 1, the changing stereotypes. [CADILLAC AD]

MR. SOLMAN: It's been a long time since we've seen images like these in our living rooms and even though this Cadillac ad may have been meant in fun, it's part of the disturbing trend in America these days, the revival of a once popular image of Japan, the malevolent, a nation of Komi Kasi pilots whom we'd better take care of before they take care of us. On the other hand, this isn't our only image. For years there's been a very different stereotype of Japan as a source of great and exotic wisdom, and more recently of economic salvation. Arriving at a private airport just outside New York City, here comes one of Japan's most powerful men and according to those who romanticize Japan one of America's economic saviors, the chairman and co-founder of the Sony Corporation, Akio Morita. He was lionized on American TV as far back as 1972 when Morley Safer profiled him for 60 Minutes.

MORLEY SAFER: At a time when most of the American electronics industry has moved to Japan to have its products made there but labeled here, Morita is bringing jobs back to this country.

MR. SOLMAN: Nineteen years later, Sony has built nine U.S. factories employing 8500 American workers. Today Akio Morita is bound for Dophan, Alabama, with his wife to celebrate Sony's 30th anniversary of manufacturing in America. That's your faithful correspondent in the receiving line. We're along for the festivities, and to see the positive image of the Japanese these days. The Moritas aren't about to disappoint us. To many Americans, Japan played too reluctant a role in the Gulf War. Many Japanese feel that has weakened the resentment. Morita has long attributed such resentment to insecurity.

AKIO MORITA, Sony Corporation: We feel basically America is strong. Why America show such a weakness and treats us so emotionally?

MR. SOLMAN: Good Japan, bad Japan, both stereotypes have been around for years and have remained remarkably similar over time, even though the U.S.-Japan relationship has flip flopped dramatically. In this World War II propaganda film directed by Hollywood's Frank Capra you see the negative stereotype at perhaps its most vivid, the Japanese as fanatics. [PROPAGANDA FILM]

MR. SOLMAN: To Americans in the 1940s, the Japanese had other unsavory personality traits as well, sneakiness, for example. [PROPAGANDA FILM]

MR. SOLMAN: When we went from black and white to color, the image turned lurid. Often it was yellow as in Yellow Peril. Adm. Yamamoto was yellow for having launched a cowardly sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Finally we saw the Japanese as two-faced, the mimic with the menacing soul. Put it altogether and you had a deep racial stereotype. If the Nazis were vile, the Japanese were sub-human, a rung down on the evolutionary ladder. But, remember, the image of the bad Japan has alternated with the positive stereotype, and the same traits that we condemned during the war became associated with the good Japan as soon as the war was over. Here is Leatherneck, a magazine of the U.S. Marine Corps, first issue after the Japanese surrendered. Already right here on the cover the stereotype was undergoing a transformation from menacing ape to cute and somewhat irritable monkey. And by the late 1950s on American TV, the copy cat quality of the Japanese was becoming almost endearing as this episode from "The Rifleman" suggests. [EPISODE SEGMENT]

MR. SOLMAN: By the early '80s, the same Japanese fighting techniques Frank Capra had denounced during the war were being extolled as martial arts. [MOVIE SEGMENT]

MR. SOLMAN: Mr. Miagi of The Karate Kid movies was becoming an American role model. In print, the image of Japan was becoming positive as well. By the mid '80s, Americans had become infatuated with the Japanese way of business and had made these and other books best sellers. By now, Japan has come to be seen as economically invincible, and therefore, threatening once again. And the same values we'd come to see so positively, self-sacrifice, hard work, learning from others, are being seen as negative once more. Some Americans even think we're back at war, only this time we're losing.

JUNE COLLIER, National Industries, Inc.: We're being bought. We're not being invested in. We're being bought, and along with buying goes control. The Japanese want to control this country. Let's just face it -- it's cheaper to buy us than it is to burn us.

MR. SOLMAN: June Collier is CEO of a large auto parts company in Montgomery, Alabama. She says she won't even taken an order from a Japanese manufacturer.

MS. COLLIER: They don't play fair. They are ruthless. They will break companies in this country.

MR. SOLMAN: You really believe that?

MS. COLLIER: I don't believe it. I know it.

MR. SOLMAN: Collier may be extreme, but her views have received plenty of attention -- on CBS's 48 Hours, on CNN, and shows across the country. At her Alabama plant, many of Collier's employees are similarly hostile to the Japanese.

EMPLOYEE: I am glad there are Japanese over here. I want 'em to come here. I want 'em to spend their money on seeing our wonderful tourist attractions, then I want them to take their suitcases and their Nikons and go home.

MR. SOLMAN: Collier has taken these fears national, barnstorming the country in her private jet. Herlatest worry is that Japan's strangle hold on the semiconductor industry, key to modern military technology, could be sold to a country other than America.

MS. COLLIER: They asked me on a show what I thought about that and I said, well, you know, I guess I'd be forced to say, well, Jim, you're right, totally right. But we have a few semiconductors left. We may have to give 'em back to you from 60,000 feet.

MR. SOLMAN: Sixty thousand feet meaning -- [TV Commercial]

MR. SOLMAN: In the wake of the war, the road's getting more dangerous. The 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor is less than a year away and some advertisers like Pontiac have already been playing to a renewed surge of anti-Japanese feeling. [TV Commercial]

MR. SOLMAN: Bad Japan, good Japan. In the past, the images alternated, the bad Japan displacing the good and vice versa. Both images are clearly part of the American psyche. But these days the two images seem to co-exist in a sort of struggle for American hearts and minds.

STANLEY GREENBERG, Pollster: Well, there's been a 20 point drop in positive attitudes toward the Japanese in the last three years.

MR. SOLMAN: Pollster Stanley Greenberg says Americans these days are more negative about the Japanese, as we've seen, but he says at the same time we're more admiring.

MR. GREENBERG: Right now Americans tend to associate most of the values that we think of as positive with the Japanese, hard working, good families, planning ahead, all of those things which Americans are supposed to have as part of their identity, Americans now seem to associate with the Japanese. So this plays itself out as almost a love-hate relationship. We see too much of ourselves in the Japanese to simply hate them. And that produces I think a lot of anxiety about how to deal with these relations.

MR. SOLMAN: In other words, as the final episode of the Bob Newhart Show illustrated in prime time last year, Americans are confused and ambivalent about the Japanese as perhaps never before.

JAPANESE ACTOR: [NEWHART SEGMENT] I'd like to buy your town and turn it into a golf course.

MR. SOLMAN: The new Japan poses as economic challenge, more profound some think than the military challenge of World War II, because Japan is now beating us at our own game on our own playing field. So we're more ambivalent than ever.

ACTOR: [NEWHART SEGMENT] Most of us were born here. Most of us will die here. No, Mr. Tagadashi, this is one town you cannot buy.

JAPANESE ACTOR: [NEWHART SEGMENT] I'll give you $1 million for each home.

ACTOR: Bring on the fricking bulldozers!

MR. SOLMAN: These days it's not a bulldozer but a stretch limo. We're finally ready to rejoin Sony's Akio Morita here in Dophan, where more than a thousand Alabamians work for him and as the Moritas arrive at the plant, the Americans here choose to shake not bite the hands that feed them. The boss has come halfway around the world to visit the troops. No wonder they've rolled out the red carpet here in Dophan this morning. At close range, we're dressing up here for the traditional plant tour, the Moritas seem a lot more like kindly grandparents than invaders from the East. We're not likely to accuse these people of taking over America if you're part of the family. As the Morita party makes its way to the factory floor, it's hard not to be struck by the apparent differences of the Japanese approach, the precision, discipline, and attention to detail. Since the magnetic tape here is highly sensitive, cleanliness is job one. A model of efficiency this Sony factory makes all the audio and videotapes it sells in America, more than 1/4 million a day. Given the huge volume, the pace seems a little slow.

MR. MORITA: Many people say Japanese machine moves slow, but we feel steadiness is more important.

MR. SOLMAN: Slow but steady, committed fanatically to constant improvement, it's what we've come to admire about the Japanese, but as Sony celebrates its 30th birthday in America, it's also what some of us once again are beginning to fear. The anniversary gala is underway. The theme is mostly mardi gras, the revelers mostly Alabaman, the hosts almost all Japanese. [PARTY]

MR. SOLMAN: Chosen by lottery, the king and queen of the day shift arrive with a flourish. But -- and here's the key point -- there's no question who's the real royalty in this castle. Appearances notwithstanding, Sony Land is not exactly the magic kingdom. The queen of the day shift was laid off for two years in 1985. And both she and the king say working for the Japanese can be awfully tough.

CARL CROZIER: Well, you would want to impress the Japanese to show them that the Americans can produce a superior quality product, and we can and we do.

MR. SOLMAN: But that's sometimes tough to do to impress them?

MR. CROZIER: Oh, yes, yes. They make it tough.

MR. SOLMAN: Because the Japanese want it their way. Everything here, from dance partners to entertainment to autographs from the boss is meticulously managed. In a scrapbook provided by the company, the Moritas' signatures roll smoothly off the line. Everyone is expected to conform and have their book signed. Then it's time for consensus and the company cheer. Morita's younger brother leads the troops in a banzai hurrah for the '90s. To us though the enduring image of the day is this one, the two faces of Akio Morita. In the flesh, a humble, diminutive figure barely visible behind the podium, on the screen a giant Orwellian icon towering over the room.

MR. MORITA: Our company is for you. You are our company. Sony is your company.

MR. SOLMAN: This man represents a culture that challenges some of our most basic notions of how to succeed in business. There's little room here for rugged individualism or even the spontaneity of a standing ovation.

SONY SPOKESMAN: Ladies and gentlemen, if you would at this time, will you join me in a standing ovation for Mr. Morita thanking him for our jobs and continued support.

MIKE YOSHINO, Harvard Business School: I think the Japanese are forcing a fundamental challenge to some of the fundamental beliefs and paradigms of the United States.

MR. SOLMAN: Harvard Prof. Mike Yoshino, Japanese by birth but culturally an American, believes Japan poses a threat to our very way of life.

MR. YOSHINO: The Japanese believe in group efforts, consensus, in a strong sense of discipline, and we, "weism", and which is really direct contrast to rugged individualism and belief in the individual and individual freedom.

MR. SOLMAN: It's a challenge to our basic self-definition.

MR. YOSHINO: Yes, indeed. The only challenge then to American ideology comes from Japan and there, of course, results speak for themselves. And that I think to an average American is an uncomfortable thought.

MR. SOLMAN: So we're back where we started, with the two images of Japan. In a sense, we're uncomfortable with both of them, the bad Japan threatens our independence, the good Japan threatens our sense of who we are. If even after the war unemployment continues to rise to levels of recent recessions, Americans could get pretty angry pretty quickly. In times of decline, people look for someone to blame, someone different, someone better off, someone they've stereotyped in the past, someone, in fact, very much like the Japanese.

MR. LEHRER: Tomorrow night Paul Solman will look at the misconceptions that Japanese have about Americans. ESSAY - BADGE OF HONOR

MR. MUDD: Finally tonight Jim Fisher's essay on a good cop with a long memory. Fisher is with the Kansas City Star and the policeman is someone he's kept up with for quite a while. [MOVIE SEGMENT]

MR. FISHER: Ah, fire power and detectives, HollywoXp staples, icons albeit celluloid, of our culture. But wait, see this guy getting in the patrol car behind me, an old man you say, uh uh, that is a cop. It's Ogie Selinger, for 32 years sheriff of Iron County, Missouri, until he retired in 1976. Did that stop him? No way -- despite being slowed up arthritis and some mornings feeling every single one of his 78 years, Ogie's still a deputy. Several times a week Ogie hooks his seat belt and goes out on patrol, running the serpentine Ozark roads hereabouts, no gun, no uniform, rarely used those accessories as sheriff. Why start now? All Ogie needs is information, and that he keeps in his head. Listen to the current sheriff, Ken Ruble.

SHERIFF RUBLE: I said, Ogie, I need to know what kind of car, license number, and where he lives, a little history behind this guy, and I gave him a license number. He thought about five seconds and told me who it was, where he lived, what kind of car he drove and what color it was and whether it was a two door or four door, and also his family history, the mother, the father, the grandparents. I says, now, fellahs, tell me your computer will do all this, and this one don't cost me anything.

MR. FISHER: Sheriff Ruble's got a fancy computer now, one of those electronic marvels that fairly spits out information, and phone hook ups and teletypes, radios, and laboratory equipment. But there in the background is Ogie, a legend among policemen in this part of Missouri, knowing stuff no computer memory could have, 78 years old, forget it! Ogie's a treasure.

OGIE SELINGER: Oh, there's a lot of things. There used to be a cabin here.

MR. FISHER: Like Bo Jackson, Ogie knows, and that's what law enforcement is really all about. Ask any cop. It's not gun battles, nor chrome automatics or uzies, although regrettably, lots of the bad guys have those now. Police work is dull, plodding, and lots of times boring, but it all comes down to information.

OGIE SELINGER: A fellow by the name of Clay West was county clerk and he was a stock trader and I got to trading with him and we'd go to these sales and I'd meet farmers from all over the county at this sale and anything going on in their community they would tell me about and I could get more information a half day at a sale barn than I could in a week trying to round it up.

MR. FISHER: On the telephone or anything else?

OGIE SELINGER: Anything else, yes, sir.

MR. FISHER: Simple. But then sometimes not so simple. There are old pictures of Ogie. That's him on the right -- or over here on the left, the guy in the straw hat. That's the way sheriffs used to dress, not just here in Missouri, but in just about any rural county in America. Ogie's kind are mostly gone now. They weren't the caricatures you see in Smoky and the Bandit pictures. Mostly they were hard working, stolid men, men who listened, men who rarely carried guns, men who like the fishermen and hunters they were often took the felons they caught and took Kodaks of them as a keepsake. Some might call them dinosaurs, but they kept a peace most of us long for now. And they had their own unique way of taking care of business -- like the time Ogie got a call about three drunks who were ripping up a tavern.

OGIE SELINGER: Well, on the way out there, I met these three boys and I turned around, stopped, and asked if they wanted a ride.

MR. FISHER: They didn't know you were a sheriff.

OGIE SELINGER: They didn't know I was sheriff and they said, yeah, we want a ride. And I said, well, get in. Well, I knew I couldn't arrest 'em by myself because they were drunk and knew they'd whipped everybody who was inside. So I drove up in front of the jail and I said, boys, I've just got to go to the restroom and they said, well, we do too. So I unlocked the jail door and I said, go ahead, and they just ran in there one at a time and then I locked the door.

MR. FISHER: A democratic in a democratic county, Ogie never lost an election. He lived here, next to the jail, with his late wife who he says was as good a cop as he was. Fame? Oh, he's been written up in a couple of those detective magazines. One thing, folks here just didn't slap Ogie on the back when he retired. They put up this plaque. People he'd arrested put up some of the money, which knowing Ogie didn't surprise a soul. I'm Jim Fisher. RECAP

MR. LEHRER: Again the major stories of this Monday, the U.S. Treasury Department moved against Saddam Hussein's financial empire. They named individuals and companies, including two in the United States, which they said were used to hide assets for Saddam in the Iraqi government. Iraqi troops forced thousands of Kurdish rebels into retreat. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled a person cannot be excluded from a jury because of race, and American choreographer Martha Graham died today at the age of 96. Finally we close tonight's program with more names of U.S. military personnel who were killed during the Persian Gulf War. Good night, Roger.

MR. MUDD: Good night, Jim. We'll be back tomorrow night with a remembrance of Martha Graham. I'm Roger Mudd. Thank you and good night.