(Serves four)

2 cups rice,   2 lbs beef, chopped into cubes 1 large onion,

salt and pepper as desired,  1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp cinnamon,

2 lbs chopped fresh green beans, 2 tsp turmeric,  1 – 8 oz. can tomato paste

Chop onion and saute with 4 tbsp canola oil. Add beef; cook until it’s brown. Add turmeric, salt and pepper.

Add chopped green beans and saute. Add tomato paste with 1 cup water. Let the meat cook with beans on medium heat, stirring occasionally until water cooks down. Add cumin and cinnamon. Leave on low heat and stir occasion ally until the meat is completely cooked.

Bring rice to a boil in 4 cups of water in a separate pot. Add 1 tbsp salt. When the rice is half cooked, drain the  water. Place rice back in pot. Mix in meat and green bean stew. Put on low heat to let the rice continue cooking for about 30 minutes.

Optional: serve with plain yogurt on the side.

“My heritage is Iranian, so we have traditional Thanksgiving foods like turkey and dressing, and my mom makes traditional Persian food. It’s usually things like rices and stews. It’s different.”

Niki Yazdani, biology freshman

“We always get turkey. Turkey’s the big thing. For dessert, we usually make a chocolate truffle — it’s pudding, whipped cream and cake. It’s mostly the same [foods], but every now and then we throw in some crab au gratin.”

Brian Wingerter, kinesiology sophomore

“Sometimes I’ll make the mac and cheese or sweet potato pie.  I like to make the desserts — there’s not a lot of pressure. People just eat that if they have room.”

Brittany Rucker, mass communication senior

Ingredients:

3 – pound fryer chicken (cut up)   4 tablespoons Tony Chacheres Original Creole Seasoning

4 tablespoons margarine   4 whole garlic (minced) 2 whole chopped celery stalks

1 whole chopped bell pepper   1/2 pound smoked sausage 4 whole chopped onions

3 cups of rice   6 cups of  water

Directions:

1: Season chicken generously with Tony Chachere’s Original Creole Seasoning.

2: Add margarine to a 5 – quart Dutch oven and fry chicken until brown.

3: Remove chicken from pot and add all vegetables.

4: Saute for 10 minutes.

5: Add sausage and rice, and cook for 10 minutes, mixing thoroughly.

6: Return chicken to pot; add water and stir.

7: Cover and simmer about 30 minutes or until rice is fully cooked.

Amanda Cade; biology freshman

“I liked fried chicken because you can pick it up at Cane’s — just drive up to the window and ask for the tailgating box. It’s chicken  fingers, so it’s easier to eat, and it’s easier to pick up.”

Kendall Knight; biology senior

“Jambalaya is just a southern Louisiana thing … This is LSU, where we’re all one big family. If you just walk around, people will give  you jambalaya.”

Jalissa Bates; secondary education grad student

“I’ve seen huge cast iron pots with people stirring up gumbo. It’s definitely SEC, definitely LSU. It’s purely authentic to our culture down  here. But it’s definitely something you have to sit down with — it’s great when someone has a big screen TV.”

Joey Butler, computer science sophomore

“I like having the standard burgers. They’re easy to make, easy to hand out and everybody enjoys them. You add some special Louisiana  seasoning, put some Tony’s on it. It’s easy, especially for college students.”

Much like the rest of South Louisiana, springtime is crawfish time in Baton Rouge — and local eateries are taking note. However, restaurants around the city are diverging from the popular boiled crawfish to less traditional dishes.  From ravioli to sushi, Baton Rouge restaurants are putting innovative twists on one of our favorite freshwater crustaceans.

Tsunami

A popular downtown staple, Tsunami has served high quality sushi and Asian cuisine to the Baton Rouge community for more than five years.

Crawfish dish: Despite its seafood status, crawfish is not normally associated with sushi.  However, Tsunami has created a roll that combines two of the world’s greatest meals. Filled with sautéed crawfish, avocado, a spicy sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds, the John Breaux roll is the perfect combination of Cajun and Asian cuisine. One roll is $8.

Location: Tsunami is located on the sixth floor of the Shaw Center of the Arts in downtown Baton Rouge from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Tuesday though Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

All Star Catering Mobile Kitchen

While primarily a catering company, All Star Catering has jumped on the food truck bandwagon with its own Mobile Kitchen. Today, this food truck delivers top-notch seafood and Cajun fare across Baton Rouge daily.

Crawfish dish: While its poboys and crawfish pies are popular, it’s All Star’s crawfish ravioli that has people lining down the block. The ricotta stuffed ravioli covered in alfredo and crawfish is the restaurant’s signature dish and is a steal at only $7.

How to follow: All Star Catering’s Mobile Kitchen releases its location through its Facebook page and its website at www.allstarcateringllc.com.

LA Boilers

LA Boilers is not your typical seafood restaurant. Equipped with a drive thru window and a large patio, many patrons simply meander outside to enjoy their freshly boiled seafood.

Crawfish dish: LA Boilers keeps their menu simple with three seafood options: crabs and crawfish seasonally, and shrimp year round. All crawfish are available live or boiled at market price throughout the season, which extends from Mardi Gras to Independence Day.

Location: In addition to their storefront at 2741 O’Neal Lane, LA Boilers’ newest location is between Bluebonnet Boulevard and Essen Lane at 9085 Perkins Road. LA Boilers is open 10:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Sunday – Thursday and 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Friday – Saturday.

Boutin’s Restaurant

Boutin’s combination of quality Cajun food and fun atmosphere has made it a popular destination for the past 10 years.

Crawfish dish: In addition to beloved favorites such as crawfish etoufeé and fried crawfish tails, Boutin’s menu includes the less traditional crawfish wontons and crawfish enchiladas. The wontons, a combination of crawfish, jalapeno, pepper jack and parmesan cheese, all wrapped in wonton skin and covered in a plumb ginger sauce, are served as an appetizer for only $7.  For the enchiladas, Boutin’s combines the Holy Trinity of Cajun cooking (onions, bell peppers and garlic) with crawfish, cheese, jalapenos and a cumin mornay sauce. The entree is $13.

Location: Boutin’s Restautant is located at 8322 Bluebonnet Blvd. and is open 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Monday – Friday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday.

Tony’s Seafood Market

With fresh seafood and authentic Cajun dishes, Tony’s Seafood Market remains one of Baton Rouge’s most popular seafood destinations.

Crawfish dish: Tony’s is best known for its fresh seafood, particularly its boiled crawfish. Because it values both its customers and its fishermen, Tony’s Seafood Market does its best to provide quality crawfish while keeping its prices at fair market value. While boiled crawfish is available seasonally, Tony’s other popular crawfish dishes are available year round. The Catfish Tony, a catfish topped with crawfish etoufeé, is a favorite at $8.49.  Likewise, the crawfish boudin is another popular item at $4.99 per pound.

Location: Tony’s Seafood is located at 5215 Plank Road, near I-110 and the Evangeline Street exit and is open from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday – Thursday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday – Saturday, and 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday.

Photography by Tabitha Austin

From tacos and crepes to brisket and gelato, mobile food vendors are introducing Baton Rouge to the national trend of meals on wheels. However, instead of hypnotic melodies blaring down the street for all to hear, food trucks use tweets and Facebook status updates to reveal their ever-changing locations.

Kickers BBQ

Roaming the town in their characteristic horned truck, Kickers BBQ offers quality food for those in a hurry.

What you can expect: Kickers BBQ serves plate lunches of brisket, chicken, sausage or pulled pork sandwiches with a choice of mac and cheese, potato salad, baked beans or corn as a side. While the menu’s prices vary, all plates are under $10, making Kickers BBQ an affordable and reasonable lunch option.

How to follow: Like most of the food trucks, Kickers BBQ is usually in downtown Baton Rouge.  Foodies can track them via their Twitter at www.twitter.com/kickersbbq.

Go Ya Ya’s Gourmet Food Truck

With everything on the menu under $7, Go Ya Ya’s Gourmet Food Truck provides Baton Rouge a sweet deal on crepes.

What you can expect: Go Ya Ya’s menu not only offers traditional sweet-style crepes like banana and Nutella or seasonal fruit and cream, but also includes savory items. For a more filling meal, Go Ya Ya’s serves grilled chicken, pulled pork and vegetable crepes for reasonable prices.

How to follow: In addition to catering film productions, Go Ya Ya’s can generally be found in downtown Baton Rouge. Go Ya Ya’s tweets its location daily on Twitter, www.twitter.com/goyayas, as well as its website, www.goyayas.com.

Taco de Paco

Taco de Paco gives a fresh spin on Mexican cuisine with its use of local ingredients.

What you can expect: The specialty of Taco de Paco is, of course, tacos.  They serve a variety of fillings, including steak, pork, chicken and beans, as well as a variety of rotating specials such as alligator or mushrooms. Tacos are $2.50 each and $7 for a meal of two tacos, chips and salsa and a beverage.

How to follow: Taco de Paco is truly a traveling restaurant. It can be found in locations stretching from Perkins Rowe to downtown Baton Rouge to the LSU Lakes. Taco de Paco releases its weekly schedule at its website, www.tacodepaco.com, and gives daily status updates at www.facebook.com/tacodepaco and at www.twitter.com/tacodepaco.

Latte e Miele Gelato

Ice cream trucks might not be new, but with their flavorful and authentic gelato, Latte e Miele Gelato is anything but ordinary.

What you can expect: From candy cane and chocolate mousse flavored gelato in the winter to strawberry and citrus in the spring, Latte e Miele’s menu changes seasonally. All of its flavors are either from local growers or straight from Italian boot itself, thus providing both quality and flavor. A small cup is $4, including tax.

How to follow: From Chimes Street to downtown Baton Rouge, Latte e Miele puts its  food truck to good use. It also can be found at local music festivals or can be hired for private use. Latte e Miele tweets daily at www.twitter.com/lemgelato and gives menu updates at www.latteemielegelato.com.

Photography by Tabitha Austin

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Godshall films a scene for Lord Byron in a swamp outside of Lafayette, LA. Photograph courtesy of Zachary Godshall

Zachary Godshall stands before his film class like any professor. He discusses the necessary evils of screenwriting’s restrictive and bland format. Having graduated from the University eight years ago, a casual observer may mistake Godshall as a student with his laid back attire and five o’clock shadow. Godshall may appear to be just another English professor, going through his daily routine. However, this 30-year-old Sundance invitee – named Louisiana’s Filmmaker of the Year – is anything but an ordinary teacher.

Since receiving an MFA in film from UCLA in 2005, Godshall has gone on to make three feature films. All of the films feature Louisiana as a backdrop, something the young filmmaker said he values. Raised in Lafayette, Godshall’s southern roots played a vital role in the filmmaker’s decision to return.

Making films for a living became a reality during a screenwriting class here at the University. Godshall says he remembers taking English 2009 with Professor Ricky Blackwood and “having a light bulb go off.”

Professor Blackwood, who has taught at the University since 1990, said he vividly remembers teaching the up-and-coming Godshall. “He stood apart from the rest in his ability. He knew how to swim and not just make splashes,” Blackwood said.

After graduating from the University with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing in 2002, Godshall went on to UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television. Upon completing his education, Godshall began work on his first feature film, “Low and Behold.”

The film, which follows an unlikely friendship in post Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, was selected for the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.

Sundance was the first film festival the young director attended. Though his film was not selected for a competitive category, the experience still taught him something film school could not.

“Seeing audiences of 400 people pack a theater to see your movie hit home the importance of making movies,” Godshall said. “The reason to make films is to share it with audiences, which is very gratifying.”

One may assume that Godshall’s accomplishments would pursuade him to live on the west coast and attempt to make a name in Hollywood.

“I’m not keen on being a gun for hire right now. I’d rather focus on doing the movies I want to make,” said Godshall.

Robert Longstreet, Eddie Rouse, Godshall and Barlow Jacobs before the screening of Low and Behold during the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Photograph courtesy of Wire Images.com

He said that he sees filmmaking in Hollywood as a constant struggle for money and reputation. While the young filmmaker does not rule out the possibility of one day working in Hollywood, the impact Louisiana has had will always show in his work.

“When I make a movie, I want it to feel like it’s coming from someone, not from a machine,” explained Godshall.

Passion illuminates the young filmmaker’s expression as he speaks about Louisiana and its people.

“I feel most inspired and invigorated when I’m here. It’s my home. Everywhere you go, there’s something unique. Everyone has a unique story to tell,” Godshall said.

A perfect example of inspiration growing from his surroundings is Godshall’s latest movie, “God’s Archichects.” The documentary follows five divinely inspired architects as they set out to make their own environments without funding or blueprints, according to the “God’s Architects” official Web Site.

The movie won Godshall the title of Louisiana Filmmaker of the Year at the New Orleans Film Festival in 2009. The Lafeyette native considers the award a huge honor and great experience.

Despite his recent successes, filmmaking is never easy for Godshall. In fact, Godshall said he recalls that the first film he made out of college “should never be seen by anyone. It’s really boring. ” He adds that everything is a learning experience and helps one to grow better as a creator.

The filmmaker seems to be a jack-of-all-trades as he has written, produced and directed all of his movies. Although it may seem like he relies on himself to get his movies made, the filmmaker says he has learned a very important lesson through the years.

“I love to collaborate with people,” Godshall said. “I would say it’s the most important part of filmmaking and also the most exciting. You get to meet a lot of new talent and take the film to new places.”

Godshall said he feels that working with rising, unknown talent really brings a film to life. He takes collaboration to a new level in his third film entitled “Lord Byron.” Now in post-production, the movie follows a man experiencing a mid-life crisis.

“We had a fifteen page outline and no script. So it makes the filming process a lot of fun, but at the same time, it’s really hard to edit something like that,” added Godshall.

Photograph by Erin Arledge

When he’s not editing in the lab or directing on set, Godshall spends his time in the classroom, teaching screenwriting and film as literature here at the University. The director is just as passionate about teaching as he is about filmmaking.

“Teaching really forces me to get down to the essence of each story and reminds me of the fundamentals,” Godshall added.

Many of his film classes involve students helping one another through group discussions and scene reenactment, while Godshall guides from a distance.

“I really enjoyed having Zack as a teacher. He had a lot of good insights since he is so experienced in his field. I could tell he really cares about students’ futures,” Ryan Bergeuron, creative writing senior, said about Godshall’s screenwriting class.

LSU’s English Department benefits from having an accomplished filmmaker as a teacher. “Having Zack here is an inspiration to everyone trying to accomplish their dreams. He sat where every student is sitting now and made something of himself,” Professor Blackwood said.

Zachary Godshall may someday be one of the biggest names in Hollywood. For now, he is happy to call LSU and Louisiana home.

Answers:
A,5 ; B,3 ; C,6 ; D,1 ; E,2 ; F,4

“I study why crime happens, why crime goes down, why crime goes up, who’s committing most of the crime, who isn’t committing the crime [and] why the crime rate changes,” the sociology professor explained.

The Web site “CAPER,” or the Crime and Policy Evaluation Research Group, has assisted the University in becoming one of the strongest criminology programs in the country, according to Shihadeh.

“Anybody interested in doing research about crime on campus can be a member of CAPER,” he said. “We’ve got a guy in accounting who does forensic accounting. He can track criminals just by looking at their accounts.”

Sociology associate professor Matthew Lee co-founded CAPER with Shihadeh in 2005.

“The goal of CAPER is to consolidate the crime-related expertise on campus into one informational structure,” Lee said. “Through CAPER we can project to key stakeholders in the community that we have significant crime-related expertise on campus.”

Lee’s relationship with Shihadeh wasn’t a byproduct of the work the two have put into CAPER. It started in the ’90s when Shihadeh was Lee’s adviser for graduate studies and director for his doctoral dissertation.

“We worked very closely on macro criminology, or communities in crime,” Lee said. “[Shihadeh is] recognized as one of the top experts in that area.”

Shihadeh, a demographic criminologist, is currently researching the relationship between Latino immigration and crime.

Shihadeh believes the absence of “long-standing Latino communities” frustrates the Latino population in these areas, thereby increasing crime.

Shihadeh is passionate about his work. Students who walk into his cramped office in Stubbs Hall can expect to find an amicable man, slightly balding, wearing the professor’s choice: a button down and slacks. Most find him typing away at his computer on a desk covered in papers and books. A typical professor’s office, but in no way a typical professor. In fact, some might say his list of hobbies reaches astronomical proportions.

“In 7th grade, the kid in front of me turned around, and we started talking about his model rocket collection,” he reminisced with excitement. “These model rockets, they actually fly! The little ones, you know? I was enamored, and I’ve been in love ever since.”

Now that Shihadeh is an adult, he’s moved on to big-boy toys. He’s an avid collector of high-powered rockets. These rockets can be 15 feet tall and can travel up to 10,000 feet into the sky. He explained that every state has a rocket club, and you must obtain permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to shoot these rockets. The FAA gives them a limit on how much space they have to send the rockets off and makes sure no airplanes fly in that area. The club members put cameras into the rockets before they go up to film what it would be like to be inside of one.

“We’re not allowed to fly them unless there’s a recovery system. They go up into the air, and there’s a little computer inside with an altimeter that measures how high the rocket is above the ground,” Shihadeh explained. “The altimeter tells the computer, ‘Hey, I’m starting to come back down. Please pull the parachute out,’ and the computer has a timer on it, blows a little gunpowder charge, blows the nose cone off and [the rocket] comes down by parachute.”

When Shihadeh is forced to stay grounded, he does it in style in one of his classic cars. He has a 1969 Jaguar XKE, a 1970 Corvette Stingray and a 1976 Cadillac El Dorado convertible.

“I buy the classic cars that were the really cool things when I was a young man,” Shihadeh said.

The way he purchases vehicles now, however, is vastly different than the way he bought them when he was younger. Instead of searching rows of cars at a dealership, he scours the Internet.

“I decide I like a certain type of car, and I’ll go online,” he said. “For example, I found my Cadillac in Colorado. It was on eBay. I paid for it by credit card on Tuesday, a truck picked it up on Wednesday and delivered it to my house Thursday.”

Shihadeh said he wishes he had more room at home so he could buy more cars. But there is another reason he can’t afford to do that:

“I have three cars and my fourth car, my wife tells me, will have to come with a divorce attorney!” he said jokingly.

Though his wife, Margo Brault, doesn’t see a divorce in the future, she does admit she’s a little jealous of the way Shihadeh treats his “babies.”

“The garage is the apartment where he keeps his ‘other women,’” Brault joked. “He let me drive each one of them. He was OK with it, but I’m the one who was hesitant. It’s not my deal. I enjoy them because he enjoys them.”

Shihadeh isn’t a man who experiences many dull moments. Along with collecting cars, shooting rockets and teaching, he enjoys home-improvement projects, photography and a variety of other activities. With that said, he stresses that teaching is his true calling.

“[In the classroom,] I get to change people’s thinking about the world. It’s really quite rewarding,” Shihadeh said. “As far as the research goes, I get to create knowledge. That’s how I describe my job: ‘I create knowledge.’ I get to think of interesting questions that I get to explore. I get paid for it, and that’s pretty cool.”

See a slideshow of more photos from this story.

Dance is the language of love, but just like a first date, it can be one of the most awkward experiences a person can have. The first day of Intro to Ballroom Dance is just that — awkward. Reminiscent of a middle school dance, students stand along the walls with their arms crossed behind their backs, fidgeting and looking around as if they want to escape.

However, these students aren’t pubescent teenagers; they are fully grown men and women.

Awkward or not, Kinesiology Associate Professor Melanie Seeling lines her students up against the back wall and begins to show them the basic steps of a Foxtrot, counting aloud as she performs the steps with them.

“One, two, one, two, one, two … Congratulations you’ve all just done quick steps,” she says, “And it didn’t hurt you any, did it?”

The students force out nervous laughter, but from the looks on their faces it seems as if they may, indeed, be in a bit of pain. This feeling is often shared among beginners.

While many students enroll in this class with a partner, some, like mechanical engineering graduate student Ranran Liu, enroll by themselves and are assigned partners on the first day of class. Liu thinks this aspect of the class is actually in the best interest of students.

“I want to know more people. This makes it easier,” Liu said after the first day of class.

Kinesiology senior Jonathan Finney remembers his first day learning the Foxtrot.

“Miss Melanie would rotate partners, and all of a sudden you’re standing next to a person you don t know,” Finney said. “I attribute my ability to dance on the way she teaches. I’ve become more confident and decisive, and it’s spilled over into other areas of my life.”

Seeling takes pride in watching dance bring people together. She feels dance has the potential to create many ties and build social skills.

“Like any other sport, [ballroom dance] forms a bond that can’t be anything other than positive,” she said. “It shows how you should treat your partner. The man should take care of lady, and the lady should respect and love the man.”

When students swap partners in class, Seeling points to a man and then points to a woman and says, “Ask her to dance, please.”

University alumnus Dillion Couvillon remembers learning more than just dance steps from taking Seeling’s ballroom dance class.

“Ballroom gave me more respect for women,” he said. “These classes are good for people our age because it shows us how to treat each other.”

But Seeling wasn’t always the teacher. Eighteen years ago Melanie Watts walked into Ric Seeling’s Dance Studio to take a jitterbug class. Ric Seeling had extra men in his class and needed a partner.

“I used her as a person to demonstrate, and I saw her abilities, fell in love with her, and the rest is history,” he said.

Melanie Seeling remembers being nervous for her first day of class.

“I heard music start, went to peek in the doorway, and [Ric] walked up to me, looked at me kinda grimly and asked if I was in his class,” she said. “I said I was just watching because it was my first day. He said, ‘Nobody watches the first day,’ and pulled me into class. I was interested in dancing, and I was interested in him, and I never left either one.”

Soon after that first class, Melanie Seeling began to attend regularly, first taking private lessons with her soon-to-be husband who taught her the way the man leads and makes sure the woman is always supportive and perfectly in tune. Shorty thereafter, she began teaching her own classes.

Three years later she and Ric Seeling were married.

Seeling hopes dance will gain popularity among younger ages so they can reap its benefits earlier in life. She’s enthusiastic about the awareness that television shows like “So You Think You Can Dance?” and “Dancing with the Stars” have brought to audiences who aren’t normally exposed to this art.

“’Dancing with the Stars’ has made dance relatable to people. Men look at Emmitt Smith and say, ‘If he can do this, I can,’” she said.

Because TV is increasing its popularity, Seeling is excited about the future of dance and working with new students. One of those students she’s currently working with is Kinesiology freshman Amanda Cockerham. Though she’s a former dancer herself, Cockerham still appreciates Seeling’s teaching style.

“She doesn’t just say, ‘Watch me do this.’ She does the same thing at the same time we do,” Cockerham said. “This is important because no one knows what they’re doing. She shows us that we’re all the same. I used to dance before [this class], but I’m still excited because I don’t know what to expect!”

Photographs by Maggie Bowles

“FREEZE!” he yells.

With this shout, Yoshinori Kamo begins the first day of his Introduction to Sociology course.

“People probably find it shocking,” he explained, looking a little pleased with himself. “People go, ‘What’s going on?’” He glanced confusedly around his office, mimicking his bewildered students. “You know, it gets some attention.”

Kamo uses this word to shock his students because it tells a much larger story — one that’s relevant not only to sociology but to his own life. On October 17, 1992, the same word rang out in a Baton Rouge suburb, and a Japanese exchange student was left dead.

A little more than 16 years ago in Baton Rouge, 16-year-old Yoshihiro Hattori and his host “brother” were driving around trying to find the house for a Halloween party they were attending. The boys found what they thought was the right address, pulled over on the street and walked up to the porch. Dressed as John Travolta in a white tuxedo from Saturday Night Fever, Hattori rang the doorbell.

This was the home of Rodney and Bonnie Peairs, a white, middle-class couple. It was not the location of the party, but the numerous Halloween decorations on the porch convinced the boys they were in the right place.

Bonnie Peairs opened a side door a crack to see who was outside, then quickly slammed the door when she did not recognize the two people on her porch. She yelled for her husband Rodney to get his gun. Unaware of the commotion inside the house, Hattori and his friend had turned around and were walking back to their car.

At that moment, Rodney Peairs came out of the carport door. “FREEZE!” he yelled, pointing his .44 magnum handgun with a laser scope at the boys. Hattori turned around and began walking toward Peairs. “We’re here for the party,” he said. Peairs panicked and shot Hattori in the chest from about eight feet away, then ran back inside the house.

The ambulance and police swiftly arrived at the scene, but the Peairs couple remained inside the house for an additional 40 minutes. Hattori died on the way to the hospital. A Baton Rouge jury found Rodney Peairs not guilty of the charge of manslaughter. (Some analysts believe Peairs was acquitted because of Louisiana’s “Kill the Burglar” statute, which gives the homeowner the right to decide if deadly force is necessary to prevent entry or to compel the burglar to leave.)

Following the criminal trial, a civil court judge awarded $650,000 to the Hattori family — a record amount in Louisiana history for a wrongful death suit. Peairs’s homeowner’s insurance paid only $100,000 of the settlement, which the Hattoris used to establish Yoshi’s Gift, an award given to gun control organizations in the U.S.

Yoshinori Kamo was a volunteer interpreter for the Hattori family at both the criminal and civil trials. “I became involved in the case and became much more than a translator later,” he told me in his lightly accented, rapid-fire English. “I became more of an advisor-coordinator. I got real close [to the family].”

He later published a book — essentially a court record — written in Japanese and titled “A Japanese Boy Who Loved America: The Trial of the Yoshi Hattori Shooting in Baton Rouge.”

Kamo instructed me to grab the dark blue hardback book off the shelf next to me. I flipped through the book to the four pages he had marked. The first marked page showed a photograph of a grinning Hattori proudly holding a large fish. The second tab marked a court photo of Kamo sitting with the Hattori family behind the prosecutor’s bench at the trial. The third picture was of the murder weapon, a sinister-looking firearm. The fourth picture was of the grim-faced Rodney and Bonnie Peairs exiting the courtroom, flanked by camera crews and photographers. These images were the only things I understood among the tight rows of Japanese characters, but they spoke volumes.

Kamo said he felt the need to write the book because he found that a lot of the press coverage of the case was inaccurate; he wanted to set the record straight for the Japanese people. He believed it was important to provide the Japanese public with this information so they could try to make sense of a tragic event that took place almost 7,000 miles away.

“We had a lot of press coverage that was incorrect, so people [in Japan] read the book and they figured out what was going on in the [United States] with the case and everything … so I think they learned a lot of truth,” he explained.

For example, any stories that ran in the media said Hattori did not understand the word “freeze” when Rodney Peairs yelled it at him. This could explain why he turned and walked toward a man holding a gun. Kamo rejects these arguments.

“Hattori came [to the U.S.] two months before the incident, so he may not have understood the word, but he was a very smart kid and I believe that he understood what was going on. It was just unthinkable for him to get shot because he had nothing to hide. I think it was more of a misunderstanding than ignorance … he knew what was going on but he didn’t believe that someone was going to shoot him, so he basically tried to explain to them, ‘Don’t worry about it, don’t worry about it, I’m here for the party,’ that’s all.” As Kamo imitated Hattori, he raised his hands, palms out, in a placating gesture.

The majority of the objects decorating the walls of Kamo’s office are related to the trial. There is a photograph of the Hattori parents shaking hands with President Clinton, in which Kamo is visible in the background. To the left of his desk hangs a gun control poster that lists gun-related deaths by countries, ending in an overwhelmingly high number for the United States.

I asked Kamo what the Japanese people thought about gun use and gun control laws in the States. “They think they are horrible,” he said, frowning. “Which, I agree,” he added. “The handgun is illegal in Japan except for police officers, military and some sports shooters. Otherwise, nobody carries a handgun. They are not used to handguns and they find it hard to believe that in this country anyone can own a handgun. They think, [and] I think, it’s ridiculous.”

While many people in Louisiana have forgotten about the Hattori incident, many Japanese people have not. “If you go to Japan and you say ‘Louisiana’ people say ‘Hattori case,’” Kamo said. “If I say ‘I’m from Louisiana,’ they say ‘Oh God, how could you live there?’”

In the case of Yoshihiro Hattori, Japanese and American cultures were juxtaposed to a tragic end. Hattori, Kamo believes, could not fathom that someone would shoot him because guns were so foreign to him. Peairs, on the other hand, grew up in the “gun culture” of the South and had been around guns all of his life. However, since he was not well trained with firearms, instead of shooting the gun in the air or shooting the perceived attacker in the leg, he shot Hattori in the chest. “When the guy didn’t stop, he panicked, basically. After he shot [Hattori], he went back to the door, locked the door and started sobbing. He knew he screwed up,” Kamo explained.

The shooting sparked a drive for more stringent gun control laws in the U.S. The Hattori family collected 1.7 million Japanese signatures and 1 million American signatures on a petition demanding stricter gun laws.  Kamo is still in contact with the Hattori family. He is involved with several projects, including advocating for gun control and improving Japan-Louisiana relations.

Their main project is the Japan Louisiana Friendship Foundation. Hattori explained, “They send students … from Louisiana to Japan and Japan to Louisiana every spring, and they pick like three or four students each time [for] a two- or three-week trip.” The hope is that this organization will foster a greater sense of understanding between the two cultures.

Kamo spoke about the case matter-of-factly, but with a restrained passion. The years that have passed between the trial and now have mellowed his anger, even if the American system has remained the same. The need for change has given Kamo a purpose, something to help him make sense of what happened — something to fight for.