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- THE WEEK, Page 16WORLDBand on the Run
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- American college students disgrace their school and flabbergast
- Japan
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- For more than a week the story went unreported, and for the
- reputation of Texas Southern University in Houston that was good
- news. Then the Japanese media disclosed that on Dec. 7 (of all
- days) members of the university's marching band, on a goodwill
- trip to Japan, had turned their Tokyo tour into a shoplifting
- spree, making off with $22,000 in loot from stores. One
- bystander even claimed that a student had brazenly videotaped
- enraged merchants chasing the thieves to their buses.
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- When Japanese police told the Americans that the buses
- would not leave for the airport until the items were returned,
- more than 80 CD players, pocket recorders, miniature
- televisions, and electric razors suddenly -- and anonymously --
- were handed over to the police. The incident has profoundly
- embarrassed the historically black university and given rise to
- concerns that the students' behavior will further tarnish the
- negative opinion of blacks already held by many Japanese.
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