Children, not realizing the dangers, are more excited to ski, go to high ground due to a possible flooding or experience an earthquake.
I was a student at Stanford when I experienced my first earthquake. For some odd reason, it seems to me they always happen in early morning. After a few shakers, though, the sense of “excitement” was replaced with apprehension. I used to say, “When Mother Earth’s clock rings, you wake up without delay.”
I remember my first earthquake in Japan and the aftermath of the Kobe earthquake.
My father and I had just arrived in Tokyo from Los Angeles. The flight was followed by an hour and a half ride in a limousine bus from the Narita airport to the hotel in the Government section. My father’s regular room was on one of the higher hotel floors, overlooking Mount Fuji and the city.
I slept on the bus and when we arrived at the room, I fell asleep on the bed. A short time later Mother Earth’s clock rang loudly. Having had previous experience ignoring her call, I immediately jumped out of bed.
As I ran to the windows overlooking the city, apparently my first question was, “Where is the camera?”
My father was watching TV and the switch to emergency broadcasting on every single channel was immediate. For anyone coming from California, that was very impressive. I remember that other than a word or two in English (one was Tsunami), I could not understand anything else. But the commotion was obvious. The anchorman was putting on a tie as he scrambled into his position. Everything worked like clockwork, a very well-trained machine.
We experienced a rolling motion that soon subsided. There was no visible damage, no buildings collapsing. Exhausted, I went back to sleep.
When the Kobe Earthquake hit 16 years ago, the damage was substantial, the devastation rampant. While the Japanese were very prepared and mentally ready for a “big one,” even they were taken by surprise. To get from Osaka to Kobe, two cities that usually require a short ride, took seven to eight hours.
I remember my father talking with the owner of a company with whom we worked years earlier. My father insisted, “What can we send to help?” It was exactly a year earlier that the Northridge (California) Quake had hit us. It was the same time of the year and almost the same magnitude. We knew how a major earthquake felt, and it was very fresh in our minds and hearts.
The owner of the company was adamant they needed nothing as they were “surviving” and “managing.” We knew first hand that could not be the case, but the Japanese culture prevented our friend from expressing his real needs. Then, my father employed a different tactic. He told the man, “You were educated in the United States, and we consider you part of our family. Please tell us what we can do to help.”
It turned out that the following were badly needed: Clean underwear, both for men and women, for there was no running water and personal hygiene is paramount. Plastic sheets were needed to cover windows and collapsed walls, as it was wintertime. Also necessary were collapsible water containers to hold and carry water.
Our Japanese friend was too embarrassed to ask. Instead, he drew us a picture we received by fax. We keep it to this very day.
My parents converged on sporting goods and department stores in Los Angeles, and we instantly engaged in packing large boxes and labeling them “Emergency Relief Supplies.” All were transported to the airport and my father left for Japan.
At that time there were no flights to Osaka, as the airport was closed, so my father landed in Narita. There, the Northwest Airlines manager met him with a contingency of people. The Airline had participated by allowing us all the cargo, but there was only one problem: Japanese Customs. According to my father, every customs officer gathered around and they did not know what to do.
After much consultation and the arrival of the Head of Customs, a solution was found. Our business was not underwear or plastic sheets or even plastic containers so customs gave permission for the cargo to proceed to its final destination, the western part of Japan.
This behavior by Japanese Customs is not extraordinary. However, the resolution was. Some years ago a family friend had arranged for a very large shipment to Israel of used clothes to be distributed to the needy. Everything was donated and given free of charge. Israeli Customs would not release the goods until duties and taxes were paid. Even the textile industry’s confirmation its members did not object to the importation failed to help. “A rule is a rule, and money must be paid.”
There was an older gentleman with whom we used to do business. He lived about two hours by train from Osaka (at normal times when a train ride was fastest in the world, but not after an earthquake). When my father was visiting Japan, everyone came to see him at the hotel and he would have half a dozen to a dozen meetings a day.
When I went on my own, I had to go to see everyone. It was the difference in age, experience and respect. With a local train ride in Tokyo, for instance, taking an hour, you can understand I could not manage more than two or three meetings a day.
There was one exception during those years when an elderly gentleman insisted on coming to see me. I always felt a great deal of gratitude for his being the only one who would. He once told me why: He felt indebted to my father who had called him after the earthquake and later came with the relief supplies.
The Japanese culture is for me a most amazing one. There are many things we can learn from them, and there are things they still need to improve (improvisation in emergencies, for instance). Israelis are great improvisers. Some say that in a group of Israelis, everyone is a general. The Japanese follow a leader and display a group mentality. It makes for a very organized and orderly life, except in times of great catastrophes.
It is then, when the unexpected and chaos rule, that one must be more flexible, trust one’s instincts, improvise and adjust.
As the events in Japan unfold today on live broadcasts, we witness a nation very prepared to meet the most devastating earthquake and its aftermath, including tsunamis, now hitting the small island nation time and time again. Some describe the events, “It felt as if the end of the world was coming.”
As help pours in from around the world, including Israel, Japan is just waking up to the unknown. Many people slept where they were stranded, at airports, train stations and anywhere they could find a place.
If it were to happen in Israel (which sits on the Syrian-African Fault and is at risk of a major earthquake), people would open their homes to complete strangers, open their offices and stores and invite others to share what they have. This is the true nature of Israelis, warm and welcoming in times of need.
The Japanese culture may not be as welcoming to such extreme “flexibility,” yet, they, more than the Israelis, are both trained and ready. They have rehearsed time and again, with the utmost determination.
There are no excuses for a lack of readiness or laziness at conducting drills or a “we will survive—we will manage” attitude. Everything was planned and tried, so that when the “Big One” hit, they could turn their attention to the unexpected and unforeseen, like two nuclear power plants with all multiple safety systems failing simultaneously.
There is much to learn from Japanese preparedness, but for now we pray for their speedy recovery.
We grieve with them for the loss of life, still unknown at this point. In an e-mail to my father, a friend writes:
“But a damage and loss of manpower by Tsunami is more terrible issue by earthquake.
Probably tomorrow we will be aware of serious tragedy that more than hundred or thousand people near seacoast are lost by Tsunami.”
Words from afar are not sufficient to describe the magnitude of what Japan has experienced. Allow me thus to end by quoting an e-mail from another friend who landed back home in Japan as the quake hit:
Dr. Bussel,
I was returning from Hong Kong on an ANA flight and landed at Narita airport at 2.44pm yesterday 3/11.
We noticed the aircraft suddenly came to stop while taxiing into gate and felt huge jerk, thought of earthquake. I thought it was not that serious since I was sitting in the last row aisle of economy class. But after waiting for one hour two hours, we saw no one on the ground and captain announced air traffic controllers had evacuated from the tower and all people, staffs and passengers had evacuated from the terminals. We sat on the taxiway until 10:30pm as immigration stopped us from entering the country as they already have enormous number of passengers to be processed for arrivals and departures as airport was closed right after our landing.
Cellphones were unusable and I used computer to talk to my wife finally via Skype program.
ANA cleaned the toilets and offered dinner while waiting and we finally deplaned at 10:30pm.
As all ground transportation including highways were closed and all passengers had to spend their night on the floor of the building.
I was fortunate my neighbor friend came to pick me up at 1am and arrived home at 3am.
You sent me the notice of the earthquake a few days ago and probably that was the start of this tragedy.
Throughout the night and while typing this message, I can feel the after shake of 1-2 degree intermittently.
We are lucky we live on the first level of a 5-story building and saw no damage except a flower vase fell and wet the floor.
My friend living on the 10th floor of a 15 floor building had damage to all their chinaware and even flooded by the water tap disconnected from washing machine.
We are all safe and sound including my daughter's family.
Thank you again for the concern.
Our prayer and thoughts are with the people of Japan and everyone everywhere affected by this horrible event.
