In the 65 years after the end of World War II, this is the toughest and the most difficult crisis for Japan. (Prime Minister Naoto Kan)There were warnings. Just two days before, on the 9th of March 2011, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake registered on the Richter scale. It was centered 25 miles from what became the epicenter of the massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake on the 11th of March. There were hundreds of aftershocks that preceded the big quake. In the middle of that, residents probably had a foreboding, a sense of some danger looming.
When it struck, the authorities were able to send off an earthquake warning. It was reported that one minute before the quake was felt in Tokyo, an early warning was sent off to millions, enough to save countless lives. The next day, the world saw what nature had done.
The images were stunning, the ferocity of the nature’s fury shocking, matched by the number of lives affected by the tsunami that followed the earthquake. The shock lingered, reassured only by images of the steely and disciplined manner in which the people of Japan met the challenge, quietly saying in action, this too shall pass.
One morning they woke up to the usual panorama, a view they’ve been accustomed to - a fishing village, a farming village, a village of people and many things - indeed, a village. By the next day, the lowlands were submerged in water with piles of debris strewn about that the water had carried back returning to the sea. The village was no longer, leaving observers wondering how anything could have withstood such powerful display of nature. It was complete in its devastation. A year later, the World Bank reported it was the most expensive natural disaster in history costing approximately $US235B.
The heroes were the Japanese people themselves, who displayed the very best of human nature - qualities observed in pictures during the Kobe earthquake of 1995. Pictures from print magazines were revealing. There were people standing single-file in long and excruciating wait to use a public restroom. It seemed nobody would dare relieve themselves in public or enter somebody else’s property for the use of a restroom. They stood in wait, in disciplined order.
For a nation with one of the oldest population in the world, the next generation shined through. There were great expressions of genuine caring and selflessness, of a gentle manner Westerners rarely see, or even experience. There were revelations of personal and national pride. When asked by reporters about incidents of looting, the answer was, those (committing the looting) are not from here.
To which I say, how I wish that I could have been there. I would have been a witness to ...
Perhaps, someday.
UNFORGETTABLE IMAGES
- THERE WAS SILENCE
- THERE WAS PAIN
- THERE WAS INTERRUPTION
- THERE WAS HEALING
- THERE WERE OBSTACLES
- THERE WERE GOODBYES
QUICK FACTS
CASUALTIES
Dead: 15,854
Injured: 9,677
Missing: 3,155
Dead: 15,854
Injured: 9,677
Missing: 3,155
BUILDINGS:
Collapsed: 129,107
Half Collapsed: 254,139
Partial Damage: 365,750
Economic Cost: $235B (Est. World Bank)
NOTE: The author is 1/8th Japanese. His great-grandfather was Scottish who stowed on a boat and landed in America. He signed up for the US Army and on a foreign deployment met his future wife, a Japanese.
Collapsed: 129,107
Half Collapsed: 254,139
Partial Damage: 365,750
Economic Cost: $235B (Est. World Bank)
NOTE: The author is 1/8th Japanese. His great-grandfather was Scottish who stowed on a boat and landed in America. He signed up for the US Army and on a foreign deployment met his future wife, a Japanese.
