JAL Jet Crash Ended ‘Interesting Life’ of Rossmoor Man, Victim’s Mother Says

A Rossmoor man killed in a Japan Air Lines jet crash Monday was one of three Americans to win a coveted scholarship from the Japanese Ministry of Education, and had “a brilliant career” ahead of him, according to his mother.

Ward Wallach, 26, was among 524 people aboard the plane, of whom only four have been confirmed as survivors, according to a spokesman for the airline. He was the son of restaurant critic and author Paul Wallach of Glendale.

At her home in a picturesque Rossmoor neighborhood, the crash victim’s mother, Merle Wallach, grew tearful as she produced a photograph of her son receiving the government scholarship from faculty at Cal State Long Beach, where he had completed undergraduate work in Asian studies.

“It’s not what he would have wanted (for a picture), but it’s all we have,” she said.

She said her son had spent two years of graduate Asian studies on a scholarship at International Christian University in Tokyo, where he was making “straight A’s.”

Extend Scholarship

“They had just reviewed his work, and were going to extend his scholarship another two years so he could complete his master’s degree,” she said.

She said Wallach spoke Japanese fluently and taught English to employees of Japan Air Lines. He was en route to teach an English seminar in Osaka when the crash occurred, she said.

She was not sure whether the seminar was for the airline staff.

On their last visit together, Wallach told his mother that he might stay in Japan “because of the many opportunities for Americans who speak the language there . . .. He was intrigued by the idea of a crime-free country and wanted to know what enables them to live so peacefully together,” she recalled.

Merle Wallach said she has three other children, including two sons. “They are all good kids. Ward, too, had a good career ahead of him. He had a very interesting life, for a short one.”

Friends are Supportive

She said the small-town atmosphere that prevails in Rossmoor (an unincorporated area just north of Seal Beach and inland of the San Diego Freeway) has brought her comfort. Ever since she received a call from the U.S. State Department Monday night informing her of her son’s death, she said that friends and neighbors have been very supportive. “My son grew up here. I brought him straight from the hospital to this house.”

Wallach attended nearby Los Alamitos High School, and his interest in Japanese culture ripened at Cal State Long Beach. He took part in an international studies program in Tokyo while an undergraduate, and stayed with a Japanese family there.

“He had many friends there. But he still kept his own interests, like playing the banjo. I wonder what his Japanese neighbors thought of that?” she said.

A spokesman for Japan Air Lines said the company has offered to pay for a trip to Japan for relatives of crash victims, but Merle Wallach said she “can’t think about that right now.”

“I don’t know why I would go there. What would I do? It wouldn’t change anything, would it?” she asked.

Wallach’s father, author of the book, “Paul Wallach’s Guide to the Restaurants of Southern California,” could not be reached at his Glendale home.