Japan Earthquake

[Bud]

The enormity of this event is hard to grasp.

Japan is the country of my ancestry. My family, however, has been in the US for quite a few generations, going back to the 1920s. My parent's generation had some continuing family ties, but they are mostly gone now. Personally, I've only visited Japan once, and I don't speak the language.

I must admit, though, that stories like this help me appreciate the culture that I'm historically tied to:
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/12/or ... ts/?hpt=C2

[scielle]

It's incredible how much can be wiped out so quickly. Any single one of these events - earthquake, tsunami, nuclear threat - is seemingly insurmountable in and of itself. The way Japan seems to be dealing with this simultaneous onslaught has been truly admirable. Indeed, a great testament to their culture.

I've only been to Japan once as well, and I must say, I didn't realise to what extent they're reliant on nuclear energy. 55 plants across the country, which apparently represents 1/6 of all the world's nuclear plants. As someone whose first childhood memories are of drinking purple iodine shots after Chernobyl, an who lost several neighbours, friends and family to sudden cancers shortly thereafter, this is all very ominous. I sincerely hope they get it under control.