Sendai Earthquake and Tsunami 2011 POSTED BY JASON FETTERS, March 15, 2011 Share
The worst is yet to come as Japan suffers a series of disasters that are worst than anything else post WWII. On March 11th, as most people were sleeping peacefully, at 2:46am, a 9.0 Mw earthquake hit the coastal towns of the Tohoku area, (Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata.) that set off a tsunami with waves up to 33 ft.
10,000 people are assumed dead or missing just in Miyagi Prefecture alone. Across 16 prefectures the death toll continues to rise.
In Tokyo, which didn't suffer as much structural damage as Tohoku, millions are stuck waiting for trains that are taking hours to arrive, cars stuck in traffic, and literally no food left on the shelf in most supermarkets and convenience stores.
If all that was not enough, a nuclear power plant in Fukushima is most likely to suffer a core meltdown that has the possiblility of sending dangerous radiation into the air and possibly across the sea. The nuclear plant is at Level 6 and Chernobyl was at level 7. Cooling efforts appear to be in vain. Thousands of people near the plant are ordered to stay inside. If radiation does leak out, then hundreds of cancer cases are likely.
Currently, there is a no fly zone around Fukushima. It is still too early to see how bad this will be.
However, amidst all the chaos, if you think back to WWII when Tokyo was reduced to rumble and people were starving in the streets, the Japanese people were able to survive and rebuild their capital. Coming from ashes, they were able to turn their darkest day into building up the Bubble Economy thanks to automobiles and thousands of electronics.
I would like to think that Japan will be able to rebuild itself during this most trying crisis and that recovery will be quick.
"The Asian Aperture" is ©2011 by Jason Fetters. All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2011 by Nolan B. Canova. Share This Article on Facebook! Subscribe to Crazed Fanboy Message Board | Email
|