Japanese Orderliness Endures in Adversity

[amoy]

The legendary orderliness of the Japanese asserted itself amid devastation on the fourth day since the island country was hit by deadly earthquake and tsunami. There were few signs of the looting and pillage that characterized, for instance, the aftermath of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

Subway trains resumed operation on Monday morning, the first day of work since the magnitude 9 quake, but due to limited electricity supply the trains were even more crowded than usual. Major subway stations such as Tokyo Station and Shinjuku Station were thronged to bursting, but no chaos ensued.

Left: People line up for kerosene in Hitachi in Ibaraki Prefecture Monday, three days after a powerful earthquake-triggered tsunami hit the country's northeast coast. /Yomiuri Shimbun-Yonhap; Right: A woman cries while sitting on a road in the destroyed city of Natori, Miyagi Prefecture in northern Japan on Sunday, two days after a massive earthquake and tsunami. /Asahi Shimbun-Yonhap
In emergency shelters hastily set up on the Northeast coast that was worst hit by the disaster, people showed stoic endurance and neighborliness. Some people halved their blankets to share with others, and at makeshift food supply booths people formed orderly queues several hundred meters long without complaining, and bought just enough for themselves so that others behind the queue could eat too.

As of 2 p.m. Monday, a mere 40 cases of theft of money and food had been reported in Miyagi Prefecture, the most seriously affected region, and no violence.

Everyone knew how to find what they could do to make contribution to a wider community. Japanese are trained from a young age how to act in times of natural disasters, and they have faith in their government and the society. Those who were isolated did not dramatize their plight but quietly went to higher ground, wrote big SOS signs and waited for the rescue team.

Crisis Deepens at Fukushima Power Plant
Japanese authorities are being criticized for failing to prevent or halt a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station after a devastating earthquake hit the island country Friday. Tokyo Electric Power Corporation said Monday that the fuel rods at the No.2 reactor at the power plant were completely exposed from 6:30 p.m. to 8:50 p.m. The rods were restored to their original place but were exposed again at 11 p.m.

Tokyo has asked the International Atomic Energy Agency for emergency assistance.

When the cooling system at the reactor broke down, TEPCO used fire engines to pump seawater into the reactor to cool the rods, but the pump malfunctioned, causing most of the fuel rods to be exposed. If exposed to air, fuel rods overheat and melt, releasing radioactive materials into the atmosphere.

TEPCO said it cannot rule out a meltdown due to the exposure of the fuel rods but is bringing the temperature down again by injecting seawater. It added since the reactor is contained by an outer structure there is "no possibility of a worst-case accident."

Japanese broadcaster NHK reported the pumps stopped flushing seawater into the reactor after running out of fuel when a plant official who was operating the pumps left his seat to monitor something else.

This DigitalGlobe handout image shows the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on Monday in the town of Okuma in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. /AFP
Earlier on Monday, the structure surrounding reactor No.3 at the power plant exploded. It was similar to the explosion on Saturday at the No.1 reactor that was caused when the hydrogen produced by the seawater used to cool the fuel rods reacted with oxygen and blew up.

The cooling and safety systems at the plant were disabled by the massive earthquake and tsunami on Friday. The explosions at the No.1 and No.3 reactors spread radioactive materials into the atmosphere and a growing number of people are being identified as having been exposed.

 

[Ray]

Good for Japan.

They have social and civic sense and a lesson to us to learn.

They have issued a warning for radioactive fallout to affect all Asia.

Normally a country with less social responsibility would have hidden it.

Good people the Japanese.