Americans Should Learn From The Japanese Disaster

After watching the terrible events that occurred in Japan, one thing I have noticed that is different from America. When we have a disaster of great magnitude, it appears that the tragedy is the invitation for many minority groups to rob, loot, destroy property, and injure or kill innocent individuals. But that is not the case of the Japanese people.

I have seen no reports of looting, intentional destruction, or violence to civilians or military personnel. What I have seen is a nation that does not deal with “red tape” or politics getting involved in decision making during a national tragedy. They, the Japanese people, take the bull by the horns and get right down to the job of search and rescue, clean-up of damage, and some have started to rebuild. This is a big difference from American disasters.

The American people seem to want to point the finger first at what they feel is the root of the problem and then who is responsible. Getting to work on the problem is not our first priority. There is a time to blame the right ones that are a fault, but priorities must over-ride the ignorant games that our government plays every time we have a national disaster. The political response seems to be how to make this an advantage at the next election and not deal with the real problems of people being homeless, hungry, and in need of medical care.

We, here in America, have become spoiled. We want the government to do all the work and make the important decisions. Why the hell would a person get their hands dirty by helping people in need that they don’t even know? Our attitude has become very selfish. Not all Americans are sorry individuals that could care less about their fellow man in need. Mostly the government leaders who have lost touch with society and reality see disasters as a stepping stone for their political future.

We tend to forget about the people that are affected by disasters. It seems that every time we have a disaster the people in those affected areas become less important. The news media concentrates on getting that ultimate story even if it is inaccurate. So you hear very little about the efforts of those impacted attempting to get their lives back to some degree of what they knew as normal.

The Japanese people come out in force, work together, and make an attempt to clean up the destruction and they seem to not care about the cause. Mother Nature caused this incident but man is getting blamed by the anti-nuclear crowd for failures in the construction and operation of the nuclear power plants. The blame is coming from mostly Americans. And what has been normal for the past few years is that we are telling everyone that we are attempting to help Japan, but the news agencies herd experts into the news studios to give their expert opinion on conditions that they have no accurate information to make an educated assessment of the situations that are ongoing in Japan.

My prayers are with the people of Japan and I hate the loss of life and the destruction caused by the Tsunami. But one thing is missing from the video that I have seen from the damaged area of Japan. The security forces that have been assigned to help with the search and rescue of the citizens of Japan and to help cleanup are not carrying weapons. No armed police chasing looters. Unlike New Orleans where even the police was looting, shooting people attempting to survive, The Japanese people are above all of that. They have learned to take care of business first and then deal with the less important issues at a later date. We should learn from them.

And to pat a group of individuals on the back for helping with this disaster, again it is the U.S. Navy. They are supplying aid in many forms to include fresh water from one of our carriers that can produce hundreds of thousands of gallons of fresh water daily. Where are the other nations? Once again the American military has taken the lead waiting for assistance from other countries that may never come.