The Journal Times from Racine, Wisconsin • 1

Winners Debt New tax champ The city of Burlington ranks No. 1 in property taxes in Racine County, page 3A. Are facing huge bills from Bills, Lions make 'Final Four' for Super Bowl. Page 1B. holiday spending? Your creditors can ilp.

Page 1C. i ME U.S. automakers to report worst sales year since '83 i i t. Yf -x 'J Survivor of death march looks back Memories of Bataan live on for veteran DETROIT (AP) Automakers prepared to report today that 1991 was the worst year for new car and light truck sales in the United States since 1983. And there's a sense of deja vu in the cyclical industry.

As the battered auto industry left the Japanese year of the sheep and entered the year of the monkey, the U.S. economy was in the ditch, consumer confidence was dragging and governmental trade sabers were rattling. In all, it was expected that automakers would report sales of about 12.3 million new vehicles in the United States last year, down from 13.8 million the year before. The Honda Accord was virtually certain to be the best-selling car in 1991, as it was the two previous years. Back in 1983, 11.7 million new vehicles were sold, said the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association; that same year, Ward's Automotive Yearbook carried a head line that seems timely nine years later: "Protectionist Fever Sweeps Washington Amid Efforts to Spark Economic Recovery.

Legislation is pending in Congress that would establish trade barriers against Japanese automotive imports it a timetable for reducing the $41 billion U.S. trade deficit with Japan is not met. Analysts contacted las'! week forecast a modest upturn in market share held by Gen eral Motors Ford Motor Co and Chrysler Corp. during 1992. Overall sales should reach 13.3 million to 13.7 million, analysts and auto executives have said.

Through the first 11 months of 1991, the Big Three held 70.4 percent of the U.S. market down 1 .4 percentage points from a year before and Japanese automakers had 26.8 percent, up 1.9 points from 1990. 03 a By Paul J. Holley Journal Times A half-century ago, Racine native Ed DeGroot was a 22-year-old soldier at a place in the Philippines called the Bataan Peninsula. He didn't know the place would later be known for one of the most infamous events of World War II the Bataan Death March.

Today, scrapbooks and a sharp memory tell the story of DeGroot's war years, including his nearly 3'z years as a prisoner of war. The story started Dec. 8, 1941 shortly after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. DeGroot was part of a 126-member tank company stationed at Fort Stotsenburg, just outside Clark Field in the Philippines. "We weren't expecting anything where we were.

Then, they started bombing and strafing us," he said. The war was on. The 12,000 American troops, 2,600 regular Filipino troops and 40,000 to 50,000 recently drafted Filipino soldiers were soon in the thick of it. The light tanks weren't much good in the mountainous, jungle terrain, said DeGroot, a tank driver. The tanks, assigned to support the foot soldiers, had to stick to roads and beaches and were susceptible to land mines.

And, the U.S. and Filipino troops couldn't hold off the better-equipped estimated 150,000 to 200,000 Japanese army. "It was really a delaying action," he said of the Battle of Bataan. "They (Japanese) didn't realize we had as little as we did." Yet, the troops held on from January until surrendering on April 9. DeGroot came through the fighting unscathed.

"I guess that's what you call the fortunes of war. Some guys were killed the first day, and some went through without a scratch," he said. But things soon worsened. The Japanese captured about 10,000 troops in Bataan and divided them in groups of 100 for an 80-mile forced march to Camp O'Donnell, a prison camp. The only food for five days was a (Please turn to DEGROOT.

Page 2A) 5 1 7 1 it-: r. 1 I Paul RobertsJournal Times Ed DeGroot looks over some of the newspaper clippings and maps relating to his part in World War II. 50 years ago, a heroic attack But will it cut into huge trade deficit? Knight Ridder News Service TOKYO When President Bush and the leaders of the Big Three U.S. automakers arrive here Wednesday, Japanese government and auto officials will greet them with a New Year's gift of trade concessions. Today, Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa announced that his government would relax some inspections for imported cars arriving in Japan, and Mazda, a major auto company, announced that it was standardizing the design of some models to permit the use of more U.S.

parts. The Japanese are also considering tax incentives to promote the sale of foreign cars. Analysts seriously question whether the concessions will provide any meaningful help in cutting the $41 billion U.S. -Japan trade imbalance, which is worsening U.S. unemployment and increasing tensions between the two nations.

In addition to concessions. Bush and the 20 business executives joining him on the trip will also find some anger when they touch down in Osaka. "This trip is not going to be what we expected," a Japanese official in Washington said last Monday as Bush left on his trip, which has also taken him to Australia. Siniiaoore and South Korea Knight-Ridder News Service Jan. 12, 1942.

Bitter fighting is taking place along the Abucay Line, the first line of defense on the Bataan peninsula in the Philippines. Gen. Douglas MacArthur has brought 80,000 men to Bataan to make their stand. The first Japanese assault was expected on the eastern or right flank of the Allied position. Maj.

Gen. George Parker, in command of the II Corps, placed his best troops in the rice paddies blocking the coastal road from Manila which the Japanese had captured on Jan. 2. The unit chosen was the 57th Regiment of the Philippine Scouts. The Philippine Scouts were an elite force.

A mix of American officers and Filipino enlisted men, the latter being long-service professional soldiers, many from families that had served the Scouts for generations. A proud unit, they were tired of retreating. They were ready to fight. On the other side of the line, Gen. Akira Nara, a former professor at Japan's War College, ordered his 141st Infantry Regiment to attack the Scout's position on Jan.

11. But this daylight effort was halted by heavy American artillery fire. Experts at night fighting, the Japanese now waited for midnight to launch a new assault. The Scouts were hard-pressed as wave after wave of enemy infantry led by (Please turn to ATTACK, Page 2A) Associated Press Dennis Cook President Bush and his wife Barbara burn incense after laying a wreath to honor war dead at the Korean National Cemetery in Seoul on Sunday. More on Bush's Asian tour, Page 2A.

IWioon dust for sale at astronomical price 'We company that made space suits for the Apollo missions. He was in charge of processing the Apollo 14 suits after the mission. Edward Goodman supposedly ran the tape down one suit's pant leg, the way you would to remove lint. Although he lives in Dover, Goodman ran a classified ad in The Washington Post: DUST This is the only private ownership in the worlds Best offer over $20,000." About a dozen people answered the ad, half from the news media, Goodman said. be the thing for them," Goodman, 31, said in a recent interview.

"I'm going to college and I'm flat broke." It's illegal to own moon material, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "Clearly, according to our regulations, lunar dust is government property," said Gary Tesch, NASA's deputy legal counsel. Goodman's moon dust if that's what it is was a gift from his father 20 years ago when Edward B. Goodman Jr. worked for International Latex a Delaware ALEXANDRIA, Va.

(AP) Hard times have driven Steve tJopdman to try to sell his most valuable possession: a 4-inch strip of dirty tape, stuck on a piece of paper. Goodman thinks the tape might fetch $100,000 or more. The reason for the astronomical price? The brownish grayish grit on the tape is moon dust at least, that's what Goodman says. "I figured if somebody was rich and wanted a conversation piece, that would An item expected to be in the Tokyo Declaration the joint trade declaration Bush and Miyazawa are to sign Thursday is an agreement to better coordinate government emission certification for cars. But a U.S.

government official familiar with the proposal, who asked not to be named, said such a technical agreement was important only in terms of showing how difficult trade negotiations could be. "You shouldn't need two heads of state for something like that," the official said. expected handshakes, not demands." Because autos and auto parts make up three-quarters of the Japanese trade surplus with America, most of the trade concessions are expected to be in those areas. However, Japanese government officials are having trouble getting significant help from their automakers, who believe the Big Three's declining sales are due largely to the recession or their own lack of competitiveness. Raod Bits wihol ton off cocnin Pleading for life A gunman accused of firing into a crowd who supported Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia pleads for his life Friday as a presidential backer points a gun in his mouth in this photo released Sunday.

It is not known if the man was killed. On Sunday, rebels pounded Gamsakhurdia's stronghold with rockets and machine gun fire, hours after the embattled leader proposed a U.N.supervised referendum on demands he resign. Story, Page 2A. Associated Prsa Ag booklet teaches kids about farming. Page 6A.

Ann Landers 3C Bridge 7C Business Extra 9A 4C Comics 3C Crosswords 4C, 6C Daily record 5A Horoscope 5C Movies 2C Obituaries 4A Opinion 8A People Racine County 3A-6A Sports 1B today's Living 1C TV listings 2C Weather 10A Wisconsin 5A f. X' fir iH U.S. 1 It .1 Knight-Ridder News Service LAUDERDALE LAKES, Fla. Broward County and federal agents seized 1 ton of cocaine valued at up to $25 million in a raid Saturday on a warehouse, police said. "This is certainly one of the biggest shipments we've seen in Broward County in quite some time," Jim Leljedal, a spokesman for the Broward Sheriff's Office, said Sunday.

Agents of the Sheriff's Office and the U.S. Customs Service had watched the warehouse for about six weeks. It is leased by a fictitious firm. The cocaine was transported from Venezuela in three 6-foot -tall spools of aluminum construction cable. Each spool contained two semicircular steel containers carrying 150 kilos each, for a total of 9IM) kilos.

A kilo, or 2.2 pounds, sells for about $28,000 on the street. Several suspects in the drug operation 4iave been identified bv police, but no arrests were made..