The Exchange

---

A friend took this photo of Yoshihiro Hattori in San Francisco

In October 1992, Yoshihiro Hattori knocked on the wrong door.

Yoshi , as he was known, was a 16-year-old Japanese exchange student on His Way to a Halloween party in Baton Rouge , Louisiana. He was with his friend Webb, and they were lost.

"I didn't know that part of The City , think to well, and I, I took a couple of times, took a wrong turn" Webb recalled in a recent interview.

The two boys, the thought adorned in Fancy Dress , you have found The Right place. But she had an innocent error, the cost Yoshi his life. A media frenzy followed, and later a massive Campaign to change America's gun laws.

Twenty-seven years after Yoshi 's parents, his family to the United States, and in Louisiana a lawyer, recalled The Day that changed her life.

" He was the life,'Yoshi was "crazy about rugby," said his parents, Masa and Mieko Hattori, in an E-Mail interview. "In the beginning he was not so active about going to America," She Said .

All That changed When Yoshi passed a test for The American Field Service (AFS) - a global exchange organization for Young People . "He was so said eager," his parents.

Yoshi delivered input paper for the program. "Wherever I go, I wish I could make the country a second home," he wrote. "I can cook Japanese, such as tempura scraps for host-families and the introduction of The Living way, the Japanese. "

A Family photo of Hattori fishing in 1989, In the summer of 1992, Yoshi moved for a year in the United States. He was met in Dallas by his hosts, The Haymaker family. They drove him back to her House in Baton Rouge .

Dr. Holley Haymaker, a doctor, and her husband, Dick Haymaker, a theoretical physicist, had hosted exchange students. But Hattori made an immediate impression, She Said .

"Yoshi was very exuberant, a total extrovert," Holley recalled. "The Kids at McKinley High School loved him because he was a Free Spirit . "Her husband agreed. "He was a really extraordinary man. He was the life. He moved through the room like a dancer. "

Yoshi was a rugby player in Japan, But in the US he signed up to a Jazz Dance class. Holley found him a bike light and a helmet, so he could cycle to class. "He was very popular with the jazz class," She Said .

The Haymakers' son, Webb, who was said to 16 of the time, Yoshi had a "huge appetite For Life and experience" and tries to make friends wherever he went. The couple attended a blues festival, the was of September, and Yoshi , in contact with other Japanese exchange student by some of the Young People they met. A few weeks later, they were invited to a Halloween party in the North-East of Baton Rouge , in The City of Central.

'are We here for The Party ' On Saturday, 17. October, Dick and Holley went to A Movie , while Yoshi and Webb on the way to The Party . Yoshi was dressed as John Travolta from Saturday Night Fever - he had watched a lot of John Travolta films, says Webb. Webb was dressed as an accident victim, wearing a neck brace from a Swimming Pool injury earlier this summer with a couple of bandages for extra effect.

the pair set off to search for The House . "We ended up on this road. We saw this House - it was a Halloween decoration, it had three cars in the drive, and The Address 10311, whereas we wanted to go, to 10131. But I just saw The Address and said, "Oh, that's it!"

Webb Haymaker, center, visits Yoshi 's House and school in Nagoya, Japan, in 1994, Webb and Yoshi knocked on the door, But got no answer. You then saw a woman open the side garage door and peer in before she slammed abruptly in their faces.

"We were told to walk away, kind of confused, I started down The Block for me, if it was a different House ," Webb. "But then someone opened the door - Rodney Peairs opened the door. "

Rodney Peairs, a 30-year-old supermarket butcher, holding a 44 Magnum revolver. Yoshi turned back to him.

"He was very eager for The Party and did not want to understand, I think, that [Peairs] had a gun. Maybe he thought it was a Halloween thing," Webb said. "He was light on his feet, and sang only in a very impetuous manner," We are here for The Party ! We here are The Party !' - Kind of happy. "

Peairs shouted, "Freeze!", But Yoshi didn't seem to understand and was always moving forward. Peairs fired once, hitting Yoshi in the chest, and slammed the door.

'There was a terrible accident'Across The City , the Haymakers left The Cinema after watching The Last of the Mohicans. "I said to Dick, as we left The Movie ," It's great that This Country is remembered as strongly as the more'," Holley.

As they walked out of the Theater, her pager went off and they called The Number . It was The Police . The Officer at The Other end of The Line told her that Webb was right, But Yoshi - The Officer distorted his name - it was not.

Holley said that she would meet The Police at The Hospital . "The is not replied be necessary," The Officer .

Dick and Holley drove off to The Police station, where Webb was sitting alone, without knowing what had happened to his friend, after the ambulance drove. His parents broke the news. "The First words out of his mouth were said, "His poor mother"," Thick. "That was the beginning of all this history, destroyed the Hattori family's life. "

Yoshi 's parents learned the news on The Line by a worker with The Exchange program. His mother, Mieko retreated to her son's childhood bedroom and cried.

'One of the neighbors', Two Days after The Killing , the Hattori family flew to New Orleans . "I was horrified," Holley recalled. "I was there to Take Care of her son and he was killed. "

But the Hattori family had just said concern for the Haymakers, they. "The First words, the language Yoshi ' s mother, was, " How is Webb?'"

The Hattori family launched a petition, to Campaign for an end to the easy gun access in the US-Yoshi 's shooting was a news story about night. It is the people shocked in Japan, where handguns are prohibited weapons. Masa and Mieko immediately action, a Campaign in Japan is calling for an end to the easy access to firearms in the United States.

"We started the petition drive from the "wake," they said. "Mieko wrote The Draft for The Campaign on the plane on the way back from Louisiana to Japan. "

Back in Baton Rouge , Rodney Peairs' trial a media circus. Police initially free Peairs left without fee, provided that he was within his rights to shoot a trespasser. But after complaints from Louisiana's Governor and the Japanese Consul in New Orleans , he was convicted of manslaughter accused.

His lawyers worked hard to be act as self-defense. just "one of your neighbors," who's the reaction to Yoshi 's was "extremely unusual way to move". Meanwhile, Bonnie Peairs - Rodney 's wife who first opened the door - said Yoshi was afraid of her and she ordered her husband to "get The Gun ".

The defense worked. In may of 1993, Rodney Peairs, was acquitted, after a jury Advisory only Three Hours .

defense attorneys argued that Rodney Peairs was "one of your neighbors," such as an "out-of-Control . Hyper active Japanese exchange student who thought his job was to scare people". But he and his wife were not deterred from their Gun Control activism.

"We think Peairs is also said one of The Victims of America", Masa and Mieko. "That Rodney Peairs was free not to talk with our Campaign . "

', An old roommate of Bill Clinton 'The Hattori family' petition drive progress. At the end, some 1. 7 million Japanese to sign. Yoshi 's story dominated the country's front pages and news broadcasts for weeks. Dick Haymaker decided to help to collect signatures in the US, the Hattori family. In the end, some 150,000 written signatures turned up in the mail.

"He was basically his year, the petition drive," said Holley. "It was before E-Mail, it was before The Web , it was before Facebook, before any of this, so it all had to be done by phone and post. "

Dick is devoted to The Gun -Control activism. "The beginning of the petition drive was and just throwing My Life . And Then I threw My Life in Washington, And Then I threw My Life in the attempt to get an appointment with The President . I have at the end!"

Both families were in Washington in November 1993, as part of their Campaign - everyone knew her from her appearances on all three network morning shows, Dick says - When , after months of trying, you managed to make a note of Mieko, a friend of The Family who happen to stay in the White House . "An old roommate of Bill Clinton ," Dick recalls.

President Clinton spoke of the Haymakers and the Hattori family in The Oval Office. "We thought, we were told welcomed," Mieko and Masa . "We believe that he understood our position. He asked for strong Gun Control laws. "

Mieko, center, and Masa , on The Right , put a Gun Control sticker-President Bill Clinton is on the lapel

us gun violence, japan, long reads, united states, louisiana, us gun laws

Source of news: bbc.com