talkpolitics | Misfortune leads to virtue*

If there's a country which is the most prepared for handling disasters, it must be Japan. Coincidentally, the word 'tsunami' is Japanese. And though Japan is cursed by the misfortune of living next to a hugely active tectonic boundary, probably no other country would be able to cope with a disaster of this proportion than Japan.

Granted, this time the combination of circumstances was a nightmare even to the standards of the Land of the rising Sun, which has experienced so much of Earth's wrath over the years. A 9 Richter quake, giant 10 m waves, and on top of that now a nuclear fallout crisis. But despite the continuing trouble with the nuclear plant, probably the world has made a collective sigh of relief that this is Japan, not someone else. Because Japan has shown tremendous preparedness to deal with disasters, despite the enormous blow it has got over the last weeks.

Indeed, a disaster of this size would have had much more devastating consequences in almost any other corner of the world. If such a catastrophe had to happen anywhere, then Japan the country and the nation and the government was probably the country with the best capacity to deal with the problem. Just compare this to Haiti, where a quake of 7 Richter (which is almost 1000 times weaker than the Japanese one), and without a following tsunami, caused the death of 200,000 people. In Japan, the unfortunate souls who perished were 9,000. I know numbers sound cold, but there are certain realities behind them that should be looked at.

Earthquakes are very, very frequent in Japan. Probably the most frequent in the world, along with Kamchatka. A day-long walk around any Japanese city would reveal scores of square buildings that are not exactly masterpieces of architectural beauty, but which contain additional armored constructions of steel inside, plus hydraulic absorbators and huge rubber "pillows". The largest anti-earthquake architecture research database in the world is also Japanese-made. Since the devastating 1995 Kobe earthquake which killed over 5,000 people, billions of dollars have been spent on research in disaster prevention. Ever since the 80s, Japan has been building dikes along the coast that are taller than 10 m. In some coastal cities there are networks of electronic sensors which are ready to alarm the residents of all households in the interior about coming tsunamis. And yet, despite all that on March 11 the huge wave overcame all these systems, it tore off all buildings on its way and killed thousands in the Miagi prefecture. Even technology is helpless against the power of natural elements.

But in Japan's case, the readiness is based not just on the infrastructure. They have an effective national policy, and adequate social habits that have been inbred for generations. It took no more than an hour for the government to react, distribute the rescue forces, to ask for international help, and then leave everybody to do their work. Clearly, the practical preparedness in case of disaster has saved many lives since Kobe. One could even go as far as to compare Japan's preparedness for natural cataclysms with the intensity of the anti-terror initiatives in the US immediately post-9/11, for which the government spends billions of dollars and which affect many aspects of people's lives.

It's a fact that from a very early age, all Japanese kids go through a series of classes dedicated to learning how to react to natural disasters. Even the animation films they're shown on these lectures are cheerful, optimistic and the characters do all their duties with ease. As if some element in the Japanese culture is centered around the idea of calmness in extreme situations. If Haiti is an example of the "I can't do this" culture and the US is the other extreme of "I can do this", then Japan is the REAL "Let's just do this" culture.

The main factor for this is one of the inherent human traits that are cultivated in a nation. Although such generalizations are of course not very useful, one could argue that Japan's cultural homogeneity and solidarity continues to be a crucial factor. This tradition of durable cultural homogeneity has helped the Japanese in extreme crises like the present one. I saw on the news how an elderly lady who was stuck underneath the rubble, when she was dragged out of the ruins, first thing she did was to apologize to her rescuers for "causing them so much inconvenience"! Can you figure that? Would that ever happen elsewhere? I doubt it. Moreover, it's no coincidence that most Japanese people in the urban centers are wearing protection masks on their faces - but they aren't doing this in order to protect themselves from aerial contagion, no. They do this to protect OTHERS. It's also stunning how no looting occurred after the devastation. Instead, people were quietly and respectfully lining up along orderly queues, waiting for water, medicines and other deficite goods.

A young lady in Kyoto was shown saying "I feel guilty for not being among the affected". Kyoto is very remote from Sendai, and the disaster didn't affect everyday life there. All this solidarity, sympathy and lack of egoism, which is so typical for societies with a more collectivist approach, is doubled with enviable discipline and resilience. In such extreme situations, the presence of such qualities in the individualistic context of our Western societies is hardly guaranteed.

I'd like to believe that most nations would react with a sense of unity in such situations. Well, maybe not with such calmness and composure like the Japanese. But we can see how the whole country is united in their efforts to overcome the disaster. And though concerns remain about the consequences from it, especially in Fukishima, there's no doubt that Japan remains as strong as ever, if not more. The faith in their own abilities and the tremendous sense for discipline and collective responsibility is helping the Japanese in situations like this, where calmness is essential. On the other hand, blind faith in order and auhority, while being effective at times of crises, could also be counter-productive sometimes. I heard an argument, "If the government tells them that the rain that's falling from the radioactive cloud is harmless, they'd probably believe it". But still, these qualities are Japan's best hope that the Sun will rise over the Land of the rising Sun again.

(* a Japanese proverb)