Japanese crisis shows: the incredible courage and effectiveness of the Japanese the triumph of their engineering and civil regulation. The personal discipline and solidarity of the Japanese has been inspiring. Words being used are: stoic sacrifice tight cohesion humility sense of obligation selflessness. Tough but taciturn dedication. The scene is the polar opposite of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when the community around New Orleans almost immediately began to tear itself apart amid incompetent leadership and a lack of support from authority. In Japan there have been bureaucratic errors and mistakes made with food and fuel supplies but that’s not unexpected. Where authorities couldn’t help volunteers and community leaders seem to have stepped into the breach.
The 50 reactor personnel who have gone back to try to bring the Fukushima plants under control have been writing farewell letters to their families. They will provide Japan with moral capital for generations to come. The disasters have galvanised a spirit of civic responsibility and generosity.
Each nation has its own distinctive governing arrangements and they are seldom designed for optimal performance in a completely unpredictable disaster scenario.
Almost all Japan’s government debt is owed in its own currency to its own people. It will repatriate much capital from abroad. Japanese people are very likely to buy reconstruction bonds.
The Japanese are very good at rebuilding things especially where there is a patriotic dimension.