Japanese Tsunami

Frightening, isn't it?

Those poor, poor people. Now they have to worry about the nuclear reactors, on top of all that.
 
The earthquake pushed Japan's coastline back eight feet and the Earth's axis by four inches, such was the power from the colliding tectonic plates. The death toll has to rise as I can't see how people could've escaped that crushing run of debris in time. Amazing pictures - talking elsewhere about the 'age of communication', it's never been more vividly and terribly demonstrated than by this event, where so many people had access to camera phones.

No doubt along with the human death toll, there will also be a similar one among pets and livestock, all swept to their deaths in the wave.
 
I don't understand why Nuclear plants where built on a known fault line. Earthquakes of this magnitude happen on average once a decade apparently.
 
I don't know why we, that is to say humans, build anything across fault lines, near volcanoes, on flood plains (think Bangladesh), on chalky eroding coastlines, beneath avalanche risks, in areas known for cyclones and hurricanes - perhaps if we'd limited our ever-expanding breeding, we'd have kept to places where we'd be a little safer?
 
It's just beyond belief, awful awful scenes. I have a few friends out there and luckily, they're all safe. I feel quite lucky I only missed it by three months myself, they've been talking about the "big one" due for a long time now, nobody could ever have prepared for this though. Without the amazing building techniques in cities, the death toll would rise even further, there's some staggering footage of skyscrapers just swaying as if they're made out of cardboard in a breeze.

This footage out today is barely believable:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12725646

I just hope they manage to recover from this in time, it's such a wonderful country and the people are so kind, generous and hard working.
 
I think these are probably the most incredible sights I've ever seen, in the sense of near-unbelievable. There are certainly appalling films of us battering each other during wartime, but this is the natural world laying to waste in mere seconds what we would've had to have bombed over several hours. It was the implacability of the rush of water that was terrifying to watch - you see cars and buses rushing wildly to escape the onslaught and just hope the folks made it.
 
I reckon in was the whales getting their revenge. All flapped their tails at the same time.

Not sure what the whale noise is for LMAO...but bets theres plenty of it in the pacific right now
 
clivex said:
I reckon in was the whales getting their revenge. All flapped their tails at the same time.

Not sure what the whale noise is for LMAO...but bets theres plenty of it in the pacific right now
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I think that's the single most disgusting post I've ever read on any forum
 
I've seen the best part of a hundred bad-taste jokes about this already. That is all that they are though, jokes. It doesn't detract from the tragedy in any way.
 
betsmate said:
I've seen the best part of a hundred bad-taste jokes about this already. That is all that they are though, jokes. It doesn't detract from the tragedy in any way.
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To me it reads like a sincere comment, rather than a joke.

Either way, I'm surprised at your tolerance levels, to put it politely.
 
japanesse giving a lesson of how to behave.
it is nice to see the people so polite making the queues and not stealing tvs in th supermarkets,
lets hope things improve quickly for the good of them and the world economy.
 
Yes, a very good point, Sunybay. No doubt because they're all from close communities and live in a society where people still care about, and for, each other, not just themselves. Not a good contrast with the post-Katrina behaviour in New Orleans, is it?
 
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sunybay said:
japanesse giving a lesson of how to behave.
it is nice to see the people so polite making the queues and not stealing tvs in th supermarkets,
lets hope things improve quickly for the good of them and the world economy.
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having worked for them, they are as polite and humble a race of people, that you are ever going to meet.

krizon said:
Yes, a very good point, Sunybay. No doubt because they're all from close communities and live in a society where people still care about, and for, each other, not just themselves. Not a good contrast with the post-Katrina behaviour in New Orleans, is it?
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exactly, and one that many physcologists should really look into. but the good ole us of a will continue to preach to the rest of the world.

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as for the clivex post.

it tells you a lot about a person doesnt it !!!!!!
he must have a friendly admin guy, no doubts.
 
God knows what the final death toll will be - not anything as stunning beyond belief as the 'Christmas tsunami' which wrecked entire swathes of several countries like Sri Lanka to Thailand, but still huge. Heartening that rescue teams (what a dreadful job) have found an old dear and her grandson, who's reunited with her son/the boy's father. Mummy is still missing, though one can still hope.
 
This may seem a little in bad taste but listening to the BBC this evening I was admiring the posthumous bravery of the firefighters and then this image appeared in my mind ...

A team of 40 had realised the harbour gates, the last line of defence against the sunami, were open and they dashed down to close them manually ... talking about trying to keep the tide back. I wonder when those poor brave souls realised that closing those gates was not going to make an ha'peth of difference.

None of them have been found.

MR2
 
i worked for an old technician in the 90`s

old fujita`san as i called him spoke of his love for his country almost daily for 6 years.
he would smile every day, and scowl when the day wasnt going well, but only when he didnt get it right, he would never have scowled at anyone,

there were times when he took the blame for others, and times when he would laugh so hard, we would all laugh.

when he was finished his "tour of duty"
he said that altho he was going back home, he loved our country so much,
that he cried in front of about 20 of us.

i still smile when i see him smiling as he waved goodbye

i learned a lot about the japanese from the man.

the story about the schoolkids waiting for their parents to collect them after a week is heartbreaking.
 
Not at all in poor taste, Monty - I didn't know about that incident and it's just another heart-rending story among so many. I guess you just respond in the best way you can - I doubt anyone expected the 'Great Wave' to be as brutal as it was. I think you might've survived just water, but not all the enormous pieces of debris banging and crashing around in it. I expect that a lot of those who drowned were knocked unconscious by this first - in a way, I can only hope that they barely knew what happened.
 
I feel like countering some of the racial gush here with accounts of Nanking and POW camps. Some of that was beyond even the nazi war crimes

As much as one can admire some of the stocism showed by the population the problems with lack of leadership and accountability (a flaw in that society so often in recent times) seems to be coming to the fore.
 
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Why would you want to counter the "racial gush" with WW2 accounts on a thread about the tsunami, though?

If somebody does a good thing, do you think it is fair to point out the (unrelated) bad things they have done in the past?

Your second point is fairer and more relevant.
 
Becausde the "funny little people who smile a lot and are ever so polite"(before injecting the plague into POWs and carrying out live autopsies) is patronising drivel
 
Fortunate really that no-longer-alive English people never committed atrocities that the currently-alive generation would be held accountable for.
 
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