Ex-NSNC Head Is Japan-Bound

By: Dave Astor Journalist. Japan. January to June. For Pete Rowe, 2003 will be the year of the "J."

Rowe, who recently completed a two-year term as president of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, has accepted a Fulbright grant to spend six months in or near Tokyo.

"I'm grateful to be in a profession where something like this can happen," said The San Diego Union-Tribune columnist, who'll use his time abroad to research the military/security alliance between Japan and the U.S. in a post-Sept. 11 world.

As a columnist, Rowe knows the importance of putting a human element into his writing. So, while he'll spend plenty of time in the library and talking to Japanese and American experts, Rowe also plans to speak with such people as Japanese officers-in-training to find out about their lives and expectations.

Rowe, who has done some military writing during his career, is not yet certain about what published form his 2003 findings will take. But he may do some pieces for the Union-Tribune's "Insight" section during and after his stay in Japan -- which, according to Rowe, has the largest American naval base outside the U.S.

The 46-year-old Rowe said he'll miss writing his thrice-weekly local column, which he began in 1992 and hopes to resume after returning to San Diego. "When I read the Union-Tribune online in Japan, and see someone doing something wonderful or stupid, I'll think, 'I could have written my 620 words about that before breakfast!'"

Rowe, a former Union-Tribune feature editor and feature writer, does write a monthly column about beer for the paper's food section that he might continue while in Japan.

With the trip five months away, the Rowe family is already starting to learn some Japanese and looking into apartment, job, and school possibilities. Lynn Hanson-Rowe is a special-education teacher who is hoping to find at least part-time work in that area during the six months abroad. Their 13-year-old son Alec will complete 8th grade in Japan, while their other two sons, Kyle and Reid, will remain in the U.S. to attend college.

The Fulbright grant that will pay for the expenses of Pete, Lynn, and Alec is worth nearly 7 million yen (more than $50,000). Rowe was invited to apply for the grant by the Washington, D.C.-based Council for International Exchange of Scholars, which administers the Fulbright program.

This won't be Rowe's first trip to Japan. He was previously there on a two-week fellowship in 1999, and loved the politeness of the people, the feeling of being safer in Tokyo than in a big U.S. city, and other aspects of the experience.

"I really found it fascinating," Rowe said, "so I wanted to go back."