Yes, exactly. Western media go all 'OMG catastrophe' (which it is), but compared to the 228,000 dead from the Boxing Day tsunami 2004? The thousands and thousands dead from the comparatively minor quake in Haiti? This was The Big One everybody had been fearing and expecting, and Japan's near-compulsive measures have worked. There's a lot of stuff broken, and and death toll might rise dramatically if part of the 10,000 missing from Minamisanriku are indeed found dead, but overall? Major earthquake affecting millions of people, high-rises moving back and forth in Tôkyô? The Japanese came through beautifully. Their public safety measures worked. The Kantô earthquake you mentioned wasn't even this strong, yet it seems Japan has learned its lesson and put it all into good effect. I am immensely impressed by how they have handled the earthquake and tsunami.
I'm not impressed by the nuclear part, but that's nothing specifically Japanese. That's the nuclear industry, they're that way worldwide. You have to be of a certain mindset to even believe that nuclear power can be handled safely. If anything, this shows to the world that we need to get rid of that technology now.-
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2011-03-13 01:08 pm (UTC)Yes, exactly. Western media go all 'OMG catastrophe' (which it is), but compared to the 228,000 dead from the Boxing Day tsunami 2004? The thousands and thousands dead from the comparatively minor quake in Haiti? This was The Big One everybody had been fearing and expecting, and Japan's near-compulsive measures have worked. There's a lot of stuff broken, and and death toll might rise dramatically if part of the 10,000 missing from Minamisanriku are indeed found dead, but overall? Major earthquake affecting millions of people, high-rises moving back and forth in Tôkyô? The Japanese came through beautifully. Their public safety measures worked. The Kantô earthquake you mentioned wasn't even this strong, yet it seems Japan has learned its lesson and put it all into good effect. I am immensely impressed by how they have handled the earthquake and tsunami.
I'm not impressed by the nuclear part, but that's nothing specifically Japanese. That's the nuclear industry, they're that way worldwide. You have to be of a certain mindset to even believe that nuclear power can be handled safely. If anything, this shows to the world that we need to get rid of that technology now.-