Home » Education & Career » Living in Japan » It can't happen here. Can it?

It can't happen here. Can it?

©

The world was in shock September 11 after the attacks on New York and Washington. Terrorists struck on American soil in a way we'd thought--or hoped--could only happen in movies.

Non-stop TV coverage was the order of the day in Japan, as in the U.S. and elsewhere. And yet, the Japanese public seemed somehow little affected by the tragedy. A Japanese co-worker expressed frustration at the attitude expressed by some of her friends. "Oh, well, there's nothing you can do," she quoted one as writing in an e-mail. "At least Japan is safe."

True, that's a normal human reaction, and one I'm sure many Americans have had when hearing of terrorist attacks or other tragedies in other parts of the world. And yet, it was only six years ago that the Aum Shinrikyo cult released sarin gas in the Tokyo subway. Has it all been forgotten already? How can anyone think that it can't happen here when it has happened here?

And that's an even more disturbing thought when one looks at the past record of official response to various disasters here over the years.

My Japanese wife was surprised at how quickly President George W. Bush appeared on TV following the attack. It seemed to me something to be expected of the President in such a dire emergency. But then, what are the Japanese used to in such situations?

In January 1995, then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama diddled while Kobe burned following a 7.2-magnitude earthquake. Slow response by the government was blamed for unnecessary loss of life, and some foreign offers of help were senselessly turned down because there was no system to handle them.

And early this year, then Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori stayed on the golf course after being informed that the Ehime Maru, a Japanese fisheries training vessel, had been hit and sunk by a U.S. submarine off Hawaii. Later, he meekly claimed that he'd been told to stay there and wait for further information, which would seem to be an admission that he wasn't in charge of his own government.

Comparing Bush's response to that, it's no wonder my wife was surprised.

More disturbing is when Japanese officials demonstrate that they haven't learned from their mistakes. Last summer, 11 people were crushed to death in Akashi, a suburb of Kobe, when poor crowd control after a fireworks display resulted in a walkway becoming overcrowded. After the incident, it was learned that officials had decided not to have ambulances on standby for the fireworks event, thinking they could get them to the scene easily if needed--which of course they couldn't, due to the heavy traffic caused by the event itself. Not only could a child have thought that one through, but after having a major earthquake just six years earlier, one would assume they'd see the importance of being prepared for any eventuality.

The copyright of the article It can't happen here. Can it? in Living in Japan is owned by . Permission to republish It can't happen here. Can it? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.