W O R L D

Heroic Japan picks up the pieces
Standing up to earthquakes, daring them to do their worst, is the response of modern Japan
Earthquakes are a fact of life in Japan. The distinction between a quake and a tremor does not impress the Japanese. A jisshin is a jisshin, is a jisshin. It might start as a tremor, a vaguely sensual, rocking sensation under one's bottom but where is it going to end? Most just fade out after a few seconds.

Waves kill one in US, spark evacuations in Latin America
Los Angeles: Tsunami waves from Japan’s huge quake have killed at least one person and sparked mass evacuations on the American continent, but failed to inflict major damage. Surges of 2.4 metres high crashed ashore on the coasts of California and Oregon yesterday, up to 12 hours after the 8.9-magnitude quake triggered tsunami alerts in dozens of countries across the Pacific.

Gaddafi’s forces recapture Brega
Cairo, March 12
Speeding down the key eastern coastal highway, tanks and artillery guns of Muammar Gaddafi’s forces stormed into the city of Brega and are now within striking distance of the main opposition held city of Benghazi as the western powers were awaiting the nod from Arab League to enforce a no-fly zone over the strife-torn Libya.

Heroic Japan picks up the pieces
Standing up to earthquakes, daring them to do their worst, is the response of modern Japan
By Peter Popham in Tokyo

People walk through debris in Minamisoma on Saturday. — AFP

Earthquakes are a fact of life in Japan. The distinction between a quake and a tremor does not impress the Japanese. A jisshin is a jisshin, is a jisshin. It might start as a tremor, a vaguely sensual, rocking sensation under one's bottom but where is it going to end? Most just fade out after a few seconds.

Others, like the one that hit Japan on Friday, start mild and harmless. But then suddenly things are falling off shelves, the walls are heaving back and forth and there is a deep rumbling coming up from the foundations. Then you know it's time to dive for cover, under a table or into the lavatory, taking care to leave the door ajar so you can escape later and lest it gets jammed in the frame.

Earthquakes are like mid-air scares in airplanes: far from getting used to them, they get scarier the more of them you go through. There were few reports of outright panic from Japan on Friday, despite the unprecedented, disaster-movie scale of what was unfolding, but that is social discipline, not absence of fear. In fact the legendary social discipline of the Japanese may have developed as a way of coming to terms with their seismic environment without losing control.

A soldier carries an elderly man to a shelter in Natori city, Miyagi prefecture, on Saturday. — AFP

"Shiran kao suru," or "Making a know-nothing face," is the Japanese equivalent of the British stiff upper lip, and very useful during earthquakes when the bowels threaten to liquefy and every instinct impels you towards the stairs and the door. Japanese learn early in life that the instinctive reaction is often the most perilous because of the debris flying through the air.

Earthquakes are largely to blame for the fact Japan's modern cities are horrendously ugly, to ensure they survive, high-rise concrete and steel structures have to be built enormously solidly. Rivers, coastlines and cliff faces are likewise thickly lined with concrete to reduce the risk of them crumbling away when the earth begins to shake.

But one should not carp: Japan may be the only country in the world which has really come to terms with the damage earthquake can do, and not only enacted appropriate laws but also enforced them. That alone singles it out from the vast majority of countries where earthquakes are a frequent menace.

A destructive earthquake is a serious test of a country's morality, one which most fail spectacularly. The blocks of flats built of cement, which turn out to have been made using sand from the beach; the primary school ceilings which crumble and crush dozens of infants; the flyovers whose piers simply disintegrate, these are the scandals common in earthquakes all over the developing world and not infrequently in southern Europe, too.

Standing up to earthquakes, daring them to do their worst, is the response of modern, post-war Japan, wealthy and technologically advanced.

On 1 September, 1923, the biggest earthquake in Tokyo's history struck: the shock was probably not much greater than the one the city experienced on Friday but far more disastrous was the firestorm that followed. The area that suffered the worst was the working class east end of the city, where hundreds of thousands lived tightly packed together in flimsy wooden houses. Fire raced through the town with astonishing speed. The residents fled, but there was nowhere to go because Tokyo had very few open spaces.

That horror, and the even worse one caused by incendiary bombs during the Second World War, gave the Japanese the resolve never to let it happen again. Yet, despite all the redundantly solid buildings, the fear of fire remains a lively one. There are still no open spaces in the city; the population is in the tens of millions and lives in close proximity to enormous stores of inflammable fuels.

Waves kill one in US, spark evacuations in Latin America

Los Angeles: Tsunami waves from Japan’s huge quake have killed at least one person and sparked mass evacuations on the American continent, but failed to inflict major damage. Surges of 2.4 metres high crashed ashore on the coasts of California and Oregon yesterday, up to 12 hours after the 8.9-magnitude quake triggered tsunami alerts in dozens of countries across the Pacific.

In California’s Del Norte County, a 25-year-old man was confirmed dead after being swept into the Pacific Ocean near the mouth of the Klamath River.

Before reaching the US mainland the tidal waves hit Hawaii, which had been given only four hours to evacuate low-lying areas, sirens blared as locals and tourists scrambled to higher ground.

Earth shifted four inches on its axis

The massive earthquake appears to have shifted the Earth on its axis and moved an island of Japan, a media report said on Saturday. Kenneth Hudnut, a geophysicist at the US Geological Survey, told CNN: “At this point, we know that one GPS station moved (8 feet), and we have seen a map from GSI (Geospatial Information Authority) in Japan showing the pattern of shift over a large area is consistent with about that much shift of the land mass.” Reports from an Italian institute estimated that Japan earthquake shifted Earth on its axis by as much as 4 inches, CNN said.

Gaddafi’s forces recapture Brega

Cairo, March 12
Speeding down the key eastern coastal highway, tanks and artillery guns of Muammar Gaddafi’s forces stormed into the city of Brega and are now within striking distance of the main opposition held city of Benghazi as the western powers were awaiting the nod from Arab League to enforce a no-fly zone over the strife-torn Libya.

Keeping up the momentum of their advance, columns of tanks backed by fighters and gunships entered the city of Brega, which was captured by the rebels just a week back after fierce fighting.

“The rebel forces, who for weeks rapidly advanced on the capital Tripoli in a bid to oust Gaddafi, are loosing steam to the better armed government forces,” Al-Jazeera correspondent reported from Brega.

The Arab channel said that Gaddafi’s forces were now in a good position to take on Benghazi, Libya’s second largest city and the seat of the rebels’ National opposition Council, which was recognised by France recently.

There were conflicting reports on Ras Lanuf, the main oil producing town, which saw pitched battle on Friday. After an intense fight, Gaddafi’s forces held the town while the rebels occupied the oil terminals.

But in a fresh onslaught this morning, Gaddafi’s forces made the rebel fighters to retreat by laying down heavy air and ground firepower. — PTI