Perfect Storm in Japan

People on the eastern coast of Japan have been working their way through a perfect storm that has hit them on three fronts. First the Earthquake, then the tsunami and now the pending nuclear reactor bust. Just one of these would be enough for ordinary citizens to crack and lose their cool. And that is why I am so impressed with the Japanese – they have lost an undetermined numbers of residents, continue to struggle with the lack of supplies and amenities, are dealing with threats of nuclear radiation – but, there has been no panic. There is concern, and a lot of it, but I don’t see any crazy panic, people running amok or any crazy acts of violence.

Why would I even expect that there would be violence? Let us revisit some of the recent natural disasters in the US, where I have been for the last several years. Among the scenes of homes in ruin and families weeping are included all-too-familiar images of looting, local residents breaking into shops and looting items (not just of daily necessities) out of greed or necessity. We saw these in the recent Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, in last year's earthquakes in Haiti, the BART crisis in Bay Area and some demonstrations in LA. That was just the mob taking over and people doing their follow-the-sheep act. Those scenes reminded me of the riots in India, when the Prime Minister Ms Indira Gandhi was assassinated – I saw people looting the shops for anything and everything. One guy lifted a TV from a shop, and put in an auto-rickshaw. While he waited for his friend to join him, the auto guy ran away with the TV. So this guy, just went in again and got himself another TV.

But there have been no such scenes reported in Japan, almost a week after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the tsunami it triggered, which swept several north eastern towns. I saw news clipping where a 79 year old couple was cleaning their house, which survived the mess with little damage. Their response to the TV crew foxed me – they wanted to go and help other people in the neighborhood. In another scene, there were people lined up outside a store to buy necessities. It was a very long line and the store could only accommodate a certain number – so the man at the gates would close the door after every few entrants, politely bow to the guy in front and ask him to wait for his turn. No one was showing any signs of anger or being upset. The same scene was repeated when the officials were distributing drinking water. The truck ran out of it, and there were still several people standing there. They just waited while the officials got another truck and resumed the supply.  

I am always interested in analyzing why people do what they do. And this behavior by the Japanese got me thinking too. My guess is that is this is a cultural difference between the people in the east and the people in the west. Some Americans are raised thinking they are like a one-man army and guys like Rambo are their heroes. Most people in the eastern part of the world are raised to think that honor is important and to not do anything that will bring the family or individual honor down in the eyes of others. That my friends, is a very fundamental difference in attitude and approach to life. I remember the time, right after Hurricane Katrina, there was a cloud burst in Mumbai, India. Thirty Six inches of rain fell in less than 24 hours – yes, I repeat 36” of rain. If that were to happen in California, it would mean eternal floods here. Life came to a standstill in Mumbai. The lifeline of Mumbai, the local trains and all modes of communications/transport were in shambles. The Indian Navy was called to help and they took over the operations. It took about a week to get things back to normal – but there were no riots, no looting, and people were very civilized.

I think that feeling of self-regulation, belonging to a social network, being responsible towards society is very important. Unless we learn to respect the others, and how others perceive us, we will never learn the importance of behavior. It is in times of adversity that the real face comes out. India is a very diverse country. But watch them go at it when the country is playing cricket, or in a crisis or under attack (note recent siege of Mumbai, Kargil War, the three wars against Pakistan) – and you will realize that the entire country stands as one when needed.  If we were to use this criterion for judging the Japanese, they have scored very high in my books. 

I hope the Japanese can recover soon from the mishap and return to a life of normalcy. God bless them and give them the strength to look at the positives in life, which will help them recover from this catastrophe.