Disaster strikes Japan; alarm bell for the world

Traditionally, historically, the Japanese are very stoic people, who prefer to show no emotion, never betraying how they really feel. But right now, in a new time and space where grief outweighs any age-old norms of behaviour, the need to express anguish, shock and pain is overwhelming. The small country with a big honour code was hit by an 8.9 magnitude earthquake at 1446 local time, Friday, triggering tsunami that reached about 10 metres in height. Buildings have been shaken, people even more so.

The epicentre of the 20 mile deep quake was 373 kilometres from Tokyo, the capital, where tremors were felt, power lines failed, fires spewed smoke, skyscrapers tottered, cars fell off bridges and people feared for their lives. The enormous waves generated carried with them cars, houses, boats, trailers, animals and human beings inland and out to sea, leaving destruction, devastation in their wake. Cell phones buzzed overtime as anxious relatives and friends tried to get in touch with each other, reporters tried to get one up on the news as it happened and rescue teams rushed to get to where help could most be used.

The disaster was not limited to Japan alone – tsunami warnings have been issued elsewhere through the Pacific region, particularly in Russia, Indonesia, Guam, Taiwan, the Philippines and Hawaii. And it comes as the highest on the scale of two previous quakes off the Japanese island of Honshu, 7.2 on Wednesday and 6.3 on Thursday morning.

The results of any such natural disaster are immediately visible. Roads and buildings are cracked, perhaps even collapsed. Public transport services are, for the most part, halted, at least until it is declared safe for them to start again. There is a strange darkness, lit by the occasional flame of burning debris, an eerie silence prevails, into which the smallest noise could be the herald of more destruction, possible death. From the human point of view, fear rules over all other emotion, showing on faces, in actions, as reactions. Instant friendships are formed as a kind of shield against that feeling of being alone, being afraid, being possibly hurt, perhaps even killed. Some of these bonds last for ever, since they are forged in moments of such stress, when each moment, every expression, is written on the soul, as it were, in letters of dark permanence.

As the authorities scramble to get essential services working again and some semblance of normalcy into everyday life, rescue and recovery personnel start the heartbreaking task of finding victims, human and animal, helping, healing, saving, burying, consoling. But that is possible only once nature stops its terrorising stirring up of the earth and ocean, calming to a state of comparative peace.

Another fallout of disaster of this kind is the effect that it has on the economy of the nation concerned. This time, the Japanese yen has fallen sharply, while the Nikkei index and June futures slid downwards. The trend has been seen across Asia, where economies are just starting to recover from the recession that hit so hard a couple of years ago. So it comes as a kind of double – multiple, really – whammy, where a nation and the countries around it are affected by a single stroke of an uncontrollable force that leaves behind a general and overwhelming devastation.

What is truly frightening is that while Japan is a well-known hot spot – from the terrestrial perspective, where the earth's tectonic plates more than occasionally clash – so many other regions are also suffering the effects of natural upheaval. New Zealand is still shell-shocked by the massive quake earlier this year. China was rocked this morning by a tremor even as it is still trying to recover from recent shakes. The north of India, in the Leh Valley, is in the process of rebuilding from earth slides. And so on and so forth. Is someone up above, some higher power, some divine authority, not pleased with what we humans are doing to the earth today? Is this series of disasters retribution for man's sins? While this kind of thought may not be especially rational or even logical, one does wonder why…

Can a nation and a people recover from such trauma without permanent scars? Japan has had to deal with the lion's share of the nightmares that can befall any people. In modern history, there have been natural disasters that cannot easily be counted, from earthquakes to floods to mudslides and more. There was the black period where the atomic bombs brought hell to the islands, where places and people are still recovering, generations later. There have been wars and political upheavals, killings and greater pain that can be imagined or expressed.

And each time, every time, like the mythical phoenix, the country has managed to get back on its collective feet and make greater progress, gaining its position as one of the most advanced in the world. This time, too, it will happen, once the shaking stops.

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Ramya Sarma is a Mumbai-based writer-editor.