The devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Scary news, regarding the effects of these natural events toward Japan’s nuclear power plants.
NY Times’ Nicholas Kristof observes his sympathy and admiration of Japan, under these circumstances. He had been the Tokyo bureau chief for the Times and so he has some experience about his perceptions of the Japanese:
Uncomplaining, collective resilience is steeped into the Japanese soul. We sent our eldest son to Japanese school briefly, and I’ll never forget seeing all the little kids having to go to school in shorts even in the dead of winter. The idea was that it built character. I thought it just gave kids colds. But it was one more effort to instill “gaman.” And it’s “gaman” that helped Japan recovered from World War II and tolerated the “lost decade” after the bubble economy burst in about 1990. Indeed, it might be better if Japanese complained a bit more – perhaps then their politicians would be more responsive.
One factor may also have to do with our relationship with nature. Americans see themselves as in confrontation with nature, taming it. In contrast, the Japanese conception is that humans are simply one part of nature, riding its tides — including many, many earthquakes throughout history. The Kanto earthquake of 1923 killed more than 100,000 people. The Japanese word for nature, shizen, is a modern one, dating back only a bit more than 100 years, because traditionally there was no need to express the concept. In an essay in the Times after the [1995] Kobe quake, I made some of these same points and ended with a 17th century haiku from one of Japan’s greatest poets, Basho:
The vicissitudes of life.
Sad, to become finally
A bamboo shoot.
I find something noble and courageous in Japan’s resilience and perseverance, and it will be on display in the coming days. This will also be a time when the tight knit of Japan’s social fabric, its toughness and resilience, shine through. And my hunch is that the Japanese will, by and large, work together — something of a contrast to the polarization and bickering and dog-eat-dog model of politics now on display from Wisconsin to Washington. So maybe we can learn just a little bit from Japan. In short, our hearts go out to Japan, and we extend our deepest sympathy for the tragic quake. But also, our deepest admiration.
I’m not sure about how to react to the tv coverage of the news so far, as I haven’t gotten to watch much of it. James Poniewozik at Time posts on the concern about how coverage is successful (or not) with the networks having cut back on their foreign bureaus and so coverage is due to the social network/Internet/cell phone systems.
I kind of expected more from “Nightline” than seeing Bill Weir at Santa Monica, CA, about a tsunami wave that didn’t devastate mainland USA; then, he spent a few minutes talking to the ABC Tokyo bureau correspondent; glad that they at least still have a bureau.
Nice that PBS Newshour does some context about the tsunami’s effect on the Pacific Rim; it’s good to hear that Hawaii has gotten better experience with these situations (after last year’s threat from the Chilean earthquake).
The images of the tsunami in Japan, though, are horrifyingly devastating. “Devastate” becomes a word used so often, it nearly becomes a cliche. But, I’m not sure what else one can say.
ABC did turn to Dr. Michio Kaku for scientific context about the earthquake and tsunami. I like how he explains things.
The troubling 21st Century continues.
