Thursday, July 26, 2012

"why do ye wrong one to another?" - Japanese Culture vs. Fukushima Daiichi

The Slope from the National Diet Bldg., Tokyo

Japanese Culture vs. Fukushima Daiichi

An American in New York or so who recently heard about the report on Fukushima Daiichi written and issued by an investigative committee the Japanese Government appointed came to a Japanese journalist.

He asked, "The report ascribed the nuclear accident to some unique features of the Japanese culture.  Do you think such a big accident can occur in the US, too?"

The Japanese journalist was puzzled but answered, "A nuclear accident is a matter of technical and other objective conditions.  It can happen in the US as it happened in Japan."

Parents of the American live relatively close to a nuclear power generation plant on the East Coast.  He is worried about safety of his parents.

Strictly speaking, one of factors of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident is related to the Japanese culture just like the geographical condition of the Japanese archipelago concerning earthquakes and tsunamis contributed to the occurrence of the nuclear accident in Fukushima Prefecture that has continued since March of 2011.

For example, Japan's capital Tokyo is very unique in that Prefecture Tokyo experiences 27 earthquakes per year which are equal to, or stronger than, the level 3 of the Japan Meteorological Agency seismic intensity scale. At the level 3 of this scale called "shindo," electric wires swing slightly and dishes in a cupboard rattle occasionally.  Even Tokyo has this frequency of earthquakes.  And finally, a Magnitude 9.0 earthquake occurred under the sea bed in the North Pacific Ocean 350 km northeast of Tokyo on March 11, 2011, causing great damage to infrastructures on the Pacific coast and triggering the nuclear accident.  There is only few nations in the world that have their capitals so close to quake/tsunami zones as Japan has.

As the Japanese culture and the mind set of the Japanese people are influenced by this natural condition, there is no denying that the Japanese culture has some relation to this nuclear disaster.

As the Japanese people have too often observed eruptions of volcanoes, big tremors by earthquakes, and horrible disasters by tsunamis, people traditionally think that it is essentially impossible to cope with natural disasters.  But if the public or official authority asserts that safety against a volcano, earthquakes, or tsunamis is guaranteed with application of special technology the authority has checked and attested, people would often like to believe that safety is guaranteed perfectly.

If the authority proudly and gravely announces that necessary measures have been taken, the Japanese people feel that it must be a very high level of scientific application, so that they cannot do anything but believe the authority.  Indeed, it will be extremely difficult to verify effectiveness of measures the authority has taken against such terrible, mysterious, and fateful natural disasters.  They just have to believe.  As the nature is too complicated, the measures should be too complicated, too, even well educated Japanese would rather think so.  So, they would simply trust the elites in the authority.  Otherwise, they would be a minority in the society.

In a monotheistic religious state, however, people, namely believers in the one and only god, would not trust the authority so easily.

Monotheists, if living in such a country as Japan full of volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis, would think that natural disasters are all triggered by the God.  And any authority in the human world cannot fully understand the causes and mechanism of those natural phenomena unless it is guided and blessed by the God.  Without divine help, no effective measures can be possible in theory.

But, monotheists would believe that if they honestly study knowledge and secrets the God would reveal to them, they can understand those natural phenomena and might be able to take effective measures.  But, the effectiveness of such measures should depend on strength of their faith in the God.  Accordingly, those monotheists would check how faithful the authority is to the God.  Indeed, there are many ungodly scientists, engineers, experts, officials, and politicians even in a monotheistic religious state.  They would really begin with doubting.   


But most of the Japanese people, non-monotheists, have a tendency to regard those natural disasters as mere mysteries in the essentially complicated nature no single god is in charge of.  Even if they learn modern science and technology so well, as today's Japanese citizens do, they think that it is anyway beyond human capability to control those phenomena, since they must be essentially complicated and cannot not be controlled by single great power such as the single god.  


Nonetheless, when they hear that an authority in the nation proclaims that it has taken effective and sufficient measures against possible natural disasters, they would not wonder how faithful the authority is to gods or any holy spirits.  Non-monotheists like Japanese have no religious norms with which to measure sincerity of the authority in charge of prevention of disasters, since these matters are not linked, at the bottom, to the sole god who created everything in this universe.  


So, the Japanese people, the Japanese media and Japanese politicians have not checked, with customary zeal in customary doubt and suspicion, preventive measures the authority has taken against a possible nuclear accident.


Indeed, it is graduates from top universities that take key positions in departments and agencies related to nuclear energy in the Japanese Government.  The owner of the Fukuhsima Daiichi plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), also recruit many graduates from top universities.  So, ordinary Japanese citizens would rather accept what they are assured of by those elite experts in the authority in terms of safety of a nuclear power plant, without doubting how faithful they are to the God, the sole Creator of the nature.  It can be regarded as a matter of culture.


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Act 7:26 And the next day he shewed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?
Act 7:27 But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?