For days now, television viewers around the world have been inundated with aerial images of quake- and tsunami-devastated towns in northeastern Japan, where survivors marked their rooftops and school grounds with messages in big letters of the alphabet--SOS and HELP.
For days now, television viewers around the world have been inundated with aerial images of quake- and tsunami-devastated towns in northeastern Japan, where survivors marked their rooftops and school grounds with messages in big letters of the alphabet--SOS and HELP.
Every country that dispatched reporters to cover the disaster made sure the teams got quotes or sound bites from compatriots who emerged unscathed.
The Hindu Business Line ran a story on three employees of a major Indian tire maker, JK Tyres, who were in Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, on business when the magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck March 11. It was their first experience of an earthquake, and it thoroughly rattled them.
"Everybody was calm, there was no hysteria, nobody panicked. The only people who panicked were us," one of them recalled. "They have a wonderful system of emergency evacuation. We were moved to under the table and then to a safe place and to the hotel. It was all very efficiently done."
All three employees are full of praise for Japan and its people.
"Can't see it happening anywhere else but Japan," they noted.
China's Global Times quoted a Chinese citizen as saying: "Several hundred people were gathered in a town square for safety. Blankets and biscuits were distributed, and men helped women. When everyone left the square three hours later, there was not the slightest trace of littering."
The paper concluded, "The world is deeply moved by the calmness of the Japanese people."
The eyes of the world have been on Japan for the past week. No other country has been more thoroughly prepared for earthquakes than Japan, and yet it has suffered crippling damage.
How should other countries prepare for something like this? This is the terror being felt by people around the world, and they are feeling the impact of this unprecedented catastrophe as if they themselves had lived through it.
Seen from abroad, Japan in normal times is--for better or for worse--a low-profile country. The foreign media have been coolly objective in their observations of the revolving-door comings and goings of its prime ministers, attributing the phenomenon to the collective incompetence of Japan's political leaders. And when China surpassed Japan as the world's No. 2 economy in terms of gross domestic product, an influential magazine, The Foreign Policy, noted cryptically that they had all forgotten that Japan was No. 2.
"Like a distant uncle whose death notice reminds you he was alive, Japan is noteworthy for its furtive slinking from the world stage," the magazine said.
This time, it's different. The disaster has changed the world's perception of Japan completely. Every country is desperately trying to learn anything it can from Japan's experience.
One thing that all overseas news crews are reporting with utter awe is the grace with which the people of Japan are dealing with their terrible predicament. As can be discerned from tone of The Hindu Business Line coverage, for instance, foreign reporters are not praising the Japanese just out of politeness or sympathy. They are simply and deeply moved by the serene atmosphere at evacuation centers, where survivors are readily sharing their scant food and supplies, and no voices are raised in anger or altercation.
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof noted in his March 11 blog column: "... The Japanese people were truly noble in their perseverance and stoicism and orderliness ... . 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."
Through e-mail contacts with me, Kristof explained how he was moved by Japan's civility during the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995. "When I walked down the main streets of Kobe and saw all these shops with windows shattered and merchandise there for taking, I was surprised that no one was helping themselves."
He was also impressed by Kobe people who stood patiently and peaceably in line for hours while waiting for relief supplies.
Kristof also recalled that he kept expecting looters would go on the rampage in downtown Kobe because "there had been lootings after major catastrophes around the world." But he said he never witnessed one such scene in Kobe.
I fully agree with Kristof that post-disaster lootings do indeed occur as a matter of course outside Japan. After last year's killer quake in Haiti, hordes of survivors plundered stores of anything they could grab. And in Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina six years ago, mobs stormed stores, kicking open the doors and taking off with flat-screen TVs, DVD players, and even basketball hoops.
Such blatant acts of plunder are unheard of in Japan. Cases of theft have been reported since the March 11 disaster, but none of them involved an out-of-control mob. By overseas standards, the serenity and absence of violence in the disaster zones is truly something to marvel.
Another phenomenon that is grabbing the attention of the foreign media is that there is no overt post-disaster price gouging even in the affected areas. Basic necessities such as bottled water and rice are being sold at pre-quake prices. Moreover, people are lining up for hours in front of stores, waiting patiently for their turn.
"This may be simply unthinkable outside Japan," said Michael Sandel, the Harvard University professor of the "Justice" philosophy course fame, in his reply e-mail to me. In that course, Sandel has discussed cases of unethical price gouging that actually occurred in Florida just after Hurricane Charlie hit there.
According to Sandel, hotels were quick to rip off desperate hurricane survivors by quadrupling their room rates. Hardware stores marked up generator prices eightfold, and some homeowners were billed an astounding 2 million yen ($23,000) for the removal of fallen trees. All that was only seven years ago.
"What an inspiring example of courage, restraint, and the spirit of community Japanese people have showed. It is a lesson that is echoing throughout the world, as this calamity recalls us to our common humanity," Sandel wrote. "I am deeply moved by the way the Japanese people have responded to this crisis."
Sandel has many friends and acquaintances in Japan. He wrote, "I have been concerned about the safety of them, and I have been watching the television coverage nonstop and following developments online."
The world watched the devastating power of the magnitude-9 temblor that is said to strike only once in a century or even a millennium. Every country around the world understood the limitations of even Japan's earthquake-proof technology, which until last week was believed to be the most advanced on the planet.
And all the countries came face-to-face with the terrifying reality that even Japan could not predict and control damage from the ensuing tsunami. They shuddered at the sight of white plumes billowing out of the supposedly safe nuclear power reactors.
For all their fear, however, people around the world are now filled with admiration and respect for the calmness and civility of Japanese survivors, who are quietly accepting their fate, persevering and helping one another.
I believe the world's faith in Japan's social fabric has not been shaken in the slightest.
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Toshihiro Yamanaka is The Asahi Shimbun's New York Bureau chief.