printThe rude Wolf Blitzer’s interview with Ichiro Fujisaki, the Japanese ambassador to the united states, reminded me of the time the regal (Akio) Toyoda went up against the proverbial Torquemada, his tormentors on the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. (Here) No words of condolence did Blitzer offer to the Japanese gentleman for the calamity his country and people have endured. Instead, Wolf hammered Fujisaki about the possibility of “another Chernobyl,” a meltdown, at one of the Fukushima’s Daiichi nuclear power reactors.
The March 11, magnitude 8.9 earthquake had damaged the Fukushima 1 power station. BBC reports more reliably and with greater detail that a big explosion on Saturday had caused “the cooling system to fail at the No 3 reactor and the fuel rods inside had been exposed.” (HERE) Wolf finally explained that the “tsunami had put that whole power plant basically under water, and killed its coolant capabilities.” (Transcripts) Fujisaki reiterated that, “We do not see evidence of a meltdown at this time,” and that his government had already evacuated the people, First from a three kilometer radius, then 10, and finally 20 kilometers radius. “We are taking as most cautious measures and we’re trying to evacuate people so that accident will not really affect people,” Fujisaki explained.
CNN further reported, via the Kyoto News Agency (the official Japanese news agency), that “9,500 people are unaccounted for. We cannot confirm that they are all deaths but know for a fact that 9,500 are missing.” A far smaller, magnitude 7.0. seismic event in Haiti, which CNN keeps invoking, killed hundreds of thousands of people, and the place is still in ruins, despite the rescue efforts of Hollywood actor Sean Penn. (And it’s not just the building codes, as our media’s analysis would have it.) Blitzer wanted to know if Japan could cope with its reactors without the US! The Chutzpah! How many working reactors does the US have?
Fujisaki assured him with the utmost politeness that “we are now coping with this issue ourselves. But, of course, there could be some consultation with other countries. But for the moment, because it’s just happening now, we are doing — working on ourselves.”
Wolf seemed shocked that a tremor and attendant tsunami that generated 30- to 50 foot tall walls of water that crashed onto Japan’s north-east coast had left some 6 million households without electricity. The ambassador assured Wolf that the number was down to 2.5 million. If that is correct, it is remarkable. Wolf and CNN hardly breathed a word about the biggest windstorm to have hit Washington and Oregon in decades. In 2006, “at least a million residents in the Pacific Northwest were stranded without power for days, in primitive conditions, befitting a Third World country.” Is Wolf unaware that, with Katrina, the US had established the gold standard for government ineptitude in a disaster? We in the Pacific North West are due for what Japan has just endured. We call it “The Big One.” The Japanese have responded calmly. I’d feel far safer in a disaster if at the helm were people who were driven by national and personal pride to put their best foot forward, and to stay stoical and soldier on.
Japan will be okay. It’s a highly civilized, advanced society.
When Wolf repeated, incredulously, “No looting? No looting; are you sure?”, one of CNN’s foreign correspondents, a Japanese woman (you guessed, her story is nowhere to be found on CNN’s website), proudly recounted how crime-free Japan is; how people pull together, yet are propelled forward by individual agency and initiative; how honest the average individual is; how, if you lose your wallet, you’ll likely find it at the nearest police station.
My husband, who traveled there recently, found the Japanese he collaborated with remarkably polite, refined, and respectful of experience and skill (whereas here in the US we idolize the average hubristic Millennial).
Japan is not a very “diverse” society, you know. Actually, it’s a homogeneous country. And as Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam discovered, but tried his best not to divulge, “In diverse communities, people ‘hunker down’: they withdraw, have fewer ‘friends and confidants,’ distrust their neighbors regardless of the color of their skin, expect the worst from local leaders, volunteer and carpool less, give less to charity, and ‘agitate for social reform more,’ with little hope of success. They also huddle in front of the television. Activism alternates with escapism, unhappiness with ennui.” …
UPDATE I: I have just posted this comment on Facebook, where the blog post seems to have struck a chord: “You all seem to have picked up on the incredible chauvinism with which our elites treat The Other—unless this Other is an illegal immigrant criminal, or some knuckles-dragging atavist. Do you think this has to do with the comfort those who have little awareness of their own motivation derive from patronizing lesser individuals? Underachievers make us feel good about ourselves. The latter are easier to ‘help.'”
UPDATE II: With respect to “individual agency” and the attempt to do your best—values Japanese society upholds— Sean related the following: exiting the train station that takes you from Tokyo airport to the down down area, he flagged a taxicab. The driver could not speak a word of English, which makes him not that different from the cabdrivers you hail on American soil. With two exceptions: the first being that the driver was in his own, Japanese-speaking country. The second was the way he proceeded. This gentleman overcame the language barrier thus: Unable to decipher the note my husband had handed him in English as to his destination, Sean’s Japanese cabby existed his vehicle, leaving Sean in it ALONE, and stopped a near by policeman. The latter explained to the cabby where the client (Sean) was headed. A confident cabby got into the cab he had abandoned to look for a cop, and drove my husband to his destination. This kind of experience was repeated throughout his trip: agency, efficiency, occupational pride, politeness.
In a word: a traditional society, the kind this American historian believes thwarts progress.
Stunning article. (Picked it up on fb). Blitzer is an idiot at the best of times. I have on occasion had to work with Jal (Their national carrier) and perfection and dedication does not even begin to describe those amazing folks.
My condolences to all those that have suffered but Japan will rise again. Pity that the USA is not even in the same class when it comes to handling natural disasters.
In 1850, Admiral Perry and the US Fleet went to Japan and insisted that the Japanese open their government to the US or he would shell Japanese seaports. Japan with no army or navy capitulated. The US used Japan as a surrogate almost relentlessly thereafter to advance its influence in the orient. By 1933, the US policy had become so abusive that US Marine General Butler sent an open letter to the US Congress advising that if we did not change our policy we would go to war with Japan. We didn’t and ww2 occurred; the loss of life and brutality on both sides was appalling. We bombed and burned Japan in the war to the point that we reduced the Nipponese people to the Stone Age. They recovered and rebuilt their country to a first world nation. We attacked them in the news when they achieved economic parity by simply making better products and competitive pricing. They survived the Kobe Earthquake and Toyoda survived the American Inquisitor, now this tsunami caused by a record breaking earthquake, their nuclear power problems only hitting a level four out of ten from it. I wish them the best.
I cannot watch CNN or Fox or any of the talking heads on TV – I have gotten all my news about what is happening in Japan via the Internet. It is obvious to me that the marching orders are out to the Wolf’s of the world: Treat our Allies like enemies and our Enemies like your BFF. I agree wholeheartedly about where I would want to be during such a disaster. Sure wouldn’t be San Fran or HOtlanta.
..and the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington (former favorite charity being Bernie Madoff) – is running a collection plate for the impoverished, starving, primitive Japanese!
Japan allowed a whopping number of 3 Vietnamese boat people (less than Israel) in the 1970’s. Let Japan handle its own affairs.
Did Japanese cities have the riots and looting that American cities have when lights go out?
Somehow, Americans have annointed themselves as the indespensible saviors of the world (who must “contain the evil” in the words of Sistah Sarah Palin) and teach all the primatives.
Meanwhile, the left is back to open season on nuclear power so they have to be in complete glee.
I too was shocked at the insensitivity that Blitzer displayed in that interview. Not only were no condolences offered, Wolf seemed to be on attack mode. He did most of the talking (shouting?), repeatedly cut away to talk to other people, and, at one point, he even cut the ambassador off mid-sentence!
I am truly impressed with the dignity with which the Japanese people and media are handling this crisis. What a contrast between their calm approach and the tawdry sensationalism of CNN!
Tina Williams’ post on your FACEBOOK got me thinking:
Consider the NEW ORLEANS hurricane/flood where the city workers (cops and firemen) abandoned the city to LOOTERS – how would OSAKA behave???
Yes – America has plenty to teach Japan these days (all negative) and hopefully they will not be so stupid as to pay attention. The “third world” learned some good lessons for the West – now they can get grow rich and watch us degenerate into multiculturalism, spendthrifism, and self-centered perversity (while maintaining our arrogance and delusions that we are “NUMBER ONE”).
IM- “Japan will be okay. It’s a highly civilized, advanced society. ”
Isn’t it amazing how the briefest analysis is usually the best ?
Japan will be all right , they will need help both short & long term & you can look at it as look how well Japan stood in the face of a 8.9 earthquake
Wolf Blitzer is a jerk. Always has been. Sean Penn is a mega jerk. Always has been. The Japanese will do the best that can be done in any circumstance. That’s their style.
[You have a gift for succinct words.]
It’s funny you should mention Sean Penn. Since the Japanese do not fit the weak, infantile stereotype of Haitians(or black people in general) this highlights leftist racism. Black people are only seen as victims to be used as props for photo ops and telethons. As someone who is black, I take offense to this.
Japan is really the only nation that can truly handle a natural disaster of this magnitude. But it will be very difficult and painful.
Japan is awesome in many ways, so I hope you don’t mind another story:
Leaving Japan for good after several years, I had two large pieces of luggage plus a bag that I was taking through the subway to the airport in Tokyo. I was somewhat disheveled and worn out due to the very busy weeks preceding my departure. Along the way I was stopped by a security guard (post 9/11 by the way). Polite but firm, he asked to see my passport and what I was doing. I showed him my passport and told him I was headed home. He was reasonable, became almost friendly after he saw that everything was in order, and moved on. No searches, no rubber gloves, nothing. I can only dream of that treatment in the US.
Perhaps knowing that their visitors actually leave the country puts them in a better mood?
The major problem with the Mainstream Media right now is “How to make a mountain out of a molehill?” The Russian reactor was of a different type and Three Mile Island only released maybe a chest x-ray into the atmosphere; which is probably how much this reactor did. Yet the American news screaming continues. The Japanese news continues to be the voice of reason and pass on the instructions of the people in charge without causing a panic. This is the big difference between America and Japan. Japan believes in the Judeo/Christian concept of ‘Love others’ which is more akin to the Hebrew, ‘respect’ than the Greek ‘love.’ And that respect- for their leaders, for their fellow Japanese, for their news media- more than any racial solidarity is the key to their keeping order. Their leaders join with them in resisting immigration, try not to overextend the economy and misuse their authority, the people respond with loyalty; something, unheard of in this country.