A.V. STUDENT PICKED FOR JAPANESE ADVENTURE.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Daily News Staff Writer

In a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Quartz Hill High School sophomore Allan Chaney will go on a friendship mission to Japan to promote better understanding between that country and the United States.

Chaney, who lives in Neenach, a small rural community 25 miles west of Lancaster, was one of eight youngsters selected from Los Angeles County to be a part of the 1997 Young Ambassador Delegation.

``I hope the experience will enlighten me. I've been stuck out here my whole life. I've been out here in the desert,'' said Chaney, 16. ``It will open my eyes and show how people are different from me. It's so far away, and the customs are so different.''

Chaney leaves on Halloween for a nine-day trip to Japan, where he and other delegates will meet with the Japanese equivalents of Fortune 500 executives and Wall Street Journal editors and have a two-night stay with a host family in Hiroshima.

It is the eighth delegation in a program that was started to help Japanese corporations better understand American diversity, said Ron Wakabayashi, executive director for the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations, who is overseeing the trip.

The trip is entirely sponsored by Sanrio Inc., the maker of Hello Kitty products, and there is no cost to the delegates except for what money they spend for souvenirs.

``In constructing the delegation, the intent is to be diverse,'' Wakabayashi said. Factors considered were geography, economic class, ethnicity and gender.

Chaney was one of eight high school students or recent graduates picked out of 30 finalists. He's the first and only one from the Antelope Valley. The other delegates hail from Sylmar, Gardena, and South Central Los Angeles.

Chaney applied to the program after his older sister, who works for the county library in Malibu, told him about it and sent him the paperwork. Other youths were nominated through the Los Angeles Unified School District and organizers of a Martin Luther King Jr. essay contest.

Part of the application required Chaney to submit an essay, in which he explained why he should be selected. He noted that he was a unique person because of the rural environs in which he lives and would be able to share his different lifestyle with the Japanese people, many of whom live in crowded urban centers.

``I would be able to share many unique experiences with the Japanese people, such as living in a large house on five acres of land surrounded by miles of desert and dirt roads,'' Chaney wrote. ``I've had experiences with just about every type of farm animal, from ducks to sheep. I can take off on my bicycle for hours and not see anyone. I ride on a school bus for 40 miles one way to get to school. My family and I lived without electricity for two years and we are still without TV reception. I like to skateboard but we have to drive 30 miles to get to the nearest patch of concrete.''

Chaney then was invited to participate in ``selection day'' held at the Japanese Cultural Center in Little Tokyo where the finalists participated in activities while being observed by judges.

They brought an object they considered important from home and explained its significance. They broke into groups and were told to design and build a city with a box of Legos.

In another exercise, they were given a scenario where they were members of a city council in a city with 20 residents. The Earth was going to explode, so they have to decide which 10 people they would take to safety on another planet, with only certain information - profession, gender, age and ethnicity - to work from.

``He was nurturing,'' Wakabayashi said of Chaney. ``When you watched the group process, one thing we saw Allan doing was trying to include people, if someone was being cut out of things. He also was thoughtful in his observations of things.''

Wakabayashi said the delegation will meet a former Sony international executive who was the interpreter for Gen. Douglas MacArthur; members of the Keidanren, a group made up of heads of corporations; the California trade representative; and the editor of Nihon Keizai Shimbun, which is like Japan's Wall Street Journal, Wakabayashi said.

They also will take a trip to Hiroshima and visit the peace museum there. Each delegate will bring 125 paper cranes they folded in honor of a young Japanese girl who suffered radiation sickness after the atomic bombing of that city.

The Japanese fold origami cranes, which is a symbol of long life, to make a wish. The girl started the process of folding 1,000 cranes as part of her wish to be healed, but she was 140 short when she died.

``I'm really looking forward to staying in a Japanese home to see what it's really like,'' said Chaney, whose mother is a dressmaker and whose father works as a supervisor for the Los Angeles city Department of Water and Power. ``I would like to look at the marketplace, the whole general mall scene. It's supposed to be different, very crowded and expensive.''

He said he will bring gifts for his hosts, including a book on California, a calendar with pictures of California, a Los Angeles Lakers cap, a ``Star Wars'' hat, and Quartz Hill High School beanies and caps.

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PHOTO Allan Chaney of Neenach will go on a friendship mission to Japan.

Jeff Goldwater / Daily News