The recent major earthquake and tsunami off the east coast of Japan has left me shocked and carrying a heavy heart for the huge loss of life in the Miyagi area.
My memories of visits to Sendai include the wonderful hospitality of friends and a beautiful coastline with gnarled pine trees and spectacular rocky outcrops by the sea.
The people of that area of Japan who survived will be in deep shock for some time as they try to understand and make sense of the depth of their many losses: family, friends, homes, villages.
Japanese culture places a heavy emphasis on the group. One’s identity comes from being a member of a group.
This brings strengths which will be invaluable in the upcoming months and years of repair and rebuilding of lives. This will help them to recover and they will be able to work well together and have a sense of solidarity.
Group decision making processes in such a culture, however, can tend to take longer so that most people’s opinions can be listened to and gradually entwined together. There is probably a fear within an individual making a decision in such a culture to rush in and make a mistake so emergency responses can seem tardy to many Westerners.
Taking responsibility for mistakes is a significant moment in such a culture. In the previous Hanshin earthquake in 1995 the reaction responses of the Government agencies were recognised as too slow.
The international news agencies have begun to switch their focus to another shocking dimension of this huge disaster. There is an ongoing risk of nuclear reactor meltdowns at some nuclear power plants in the disaster area with a possible dispersal of radiation into the atmosphere.
There has been some admission of a rise in radiation in some areas and reports of further explosions. This news will be chilling for people who are simply trying to survive the initial period of this disaster because Japanese people are very aware of the risks of nuclear radiation.
Some would say that they have an 'allergy' to anything nuclear after their experience of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Most high school children have visited the Peace Park displays in Hiroshima or Nagasaki and seen the shocking images of the devastation and the consequent long term effects of radiation. Peace education is part of the school curriculum. My own visits to both Peace Parks left me stunned at the devastating effects of