Commentary : Japan faces crisis with characteristic orderliness and calm civic sense

The ferocious tsunami spawned by one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded that slammed Japan Friday, killing at least 1300 people as it swept away boats, cars and homes while widespread fires burned out of control. Another big disaster looms as a nuclear reactor, shut down after the 8.9 scale quake, failed to cool its core and faces meltdown carrying threat of the spread of deadly radioactivity.

But the affected Japanese people, as shown live by international television channels, looked composed and orderly to piece together things and start life anew. Homeless people were stranded at shelters, but they did not look like ordinary refugees crying out of despair and helplessness. There was no street chaos or looting of shops usually resorted to by unruly greedy ones. Nobody was seen violating traffic lights.

Even for a country used to earthquakes, this one was of horrific proportions because of the tsunami that crashed ashore, swallowing everything in its path as it surged several miles (kilometers) inland before retreating. The apocalyptic images of surging water broadcast by Japanese TV networks resembled scenes from a Hollywood disaster movie.

Agencies reported, Japan’s worst previous quake was in 1923 in Kanto, an 8.3-magnitude temblor that killed 143,000 people, according to USGS. A 7.2-magnitude quake in Kobe city in 1996 killed 6,400 people. [Read More]

—–
Source: The New Nation - Independent Daily