"Mind if I play through?"....
Posted on 03/16/2011 10:34:17 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
“Gaman-subeki.”
Translated from the Japanese, the words mean “we must endure.”
It’s these words the Japanese are using to describe the way they are dealing with the nightmare engulfing their country, according to an edited report by Winnetka native Dan Simon, 30, who has lived in Tokyo for the past three years.
“The Japanese people have responded to the situation with resilience and determination,” said Simon, a journalist who is now working for a public relations company. “They are hanging tough and proud of the way they have responded to the crisis. This is the Japanese way: continue on, do not give up and help each other.
“I live in Tokyo in the middle of the city and I think it’s important to note if this had happened in Chicago or in New York, I think we would have seen rioting and looting.
“But the Japanese people have a different way of doing things, and even though there is panic, they go about their lives in an orderly and polite way. There’s no overturned cars or riot police. It’s something that the Japanese people are very proud of. They’re saying they are very proud to be Japanese right now.”
Simon, a graduate of New Trier High School, has no plans to leave.
“In spite of several moments of panic, and the ever-present desire to flee overseas, I will follow the example of the Japanese and stay put.”
Although Tokyo has been relatively safe, hours after Simon dispatched his message to Sneed, the city was hit by three more aftershocks at 8:30 a.m. Chicago time Tuesday.
“One was a 6.0 on the Richter scale,” said Simon, who’d recently been on his home computer “watching a streaming Internet video of someone with a Geiger counter in nearby Chiba. But I’m not worried about radiation at all. From the information I’ve been receiving, it’s not something to really worry about in Tokyo. There is some panic with people buying food and water — but people are still delivering pizza.
“It has been four days since the giant earthquake. When the quake struck, I was in my office on the top floor of a seven-story building. At first, it felt like the dozens of minor earthquakes I have experienced since moving here.
“I quickly realized, as did my co-workers, that it was no minor thing. I braced myself in a nearby door jam while the rest of my colleagues ducked under their desks. Our building swayed, heavy metal bookshelves and cabinets were knocked over and the walls cracked. We feared it was the “big one” that has been predicted to hit Tokyo for decades.
“On Sunday, I started carrying my passport and cash around with me. As the new week began, many foreigners fled the city. A vegetable vendor near my office said, “Food supplies are still strong from the southern and western parts of Japan. But in the northern areas, things are very difficult. But Tokyo is OK.”
Then he added: “But it does seem surreal, as if the real danger is looming just out of sight.”
There is nothing untrue about this statement. Chicago riots over a ball game.
You don't get a lot of rioting in a few feet of unplowed snow - especially in Chicago with that wind off the lake.
And a snow storm shutting down traffic for a few days hardly compares to what is happening in Japan.
How many thousands were killed in the snow storm? How many were without shelter and food and water? How long did the 'disaster' go on? Did they storm piled on storm? Were they told to 'stay in your homes' (raditaion) when they no longer HAD homes?
You can do better than that.
Just as the average Chicagoan did good in the big snow last month, offering help to stranded people and sharing goods and services - there was no looting when it would have been the perfect time for it with all the city shut down.
In the discussions posted I see this-and-that. That people in the USA responded so honorably and heroically to 9/11 stands out as what our people do have in their spirit. However, that spirit must be considered alongside the experiences in the Katrina disastor. To me, as a WWII vet, this tragedy in Japan with all the suffering people along with all the due concern and compassion shown by the world brings back memories of how cruelly the Japanese acted on other people in the years of WWII. No doubt as time goes on such comparisons will only be history. I’m sure the Romans were very unkind during their conquests but who cares now.
In the discussions posted I see this-and-that. That people in the USA responded so honorably and heroically to 9/11 stands out as what our people do have in their spirit. However, that spirit must be considered alongside the experiences in the Katrina disastor. To me, as a WWII vet, this tragedy in Japan with all the suffering people along with all the due concern and compassion shown by the world brings back memories of how cruelly the Japanese acted on other people in the years of WWII. No doubt as time goes on such comparisons will only be history. I’m sure the Romans were very unkind during their conquests but who cares now.
And are those comments not well deserved?
Katrina illustrated the decreped state of affairs. We not only had looters, we had policemen participating in the looting. We have videos of policemen looting Walmart - and after several hearings .... those bottom dwelling scum are BACK ON THE FORCE today. We have policemen that abandoned their posts, who stole Cadillacs and drove them to Houston and sold them - back on the force today.
In America, we have people who rob, loot and use the disruption of society to rape and steal. We have shop-owners to jack up the prices to gouge customers. You can see these scum during any Hurricane both before, as well as after it hits.
In Japan, we are witnessing shopowners LOWER prices to the people can afford food; and impose limits to make sure that as many customers as possible can all get food/water.
Care to compare the resolve and self-reliance of Japan against what we have in America? If this happened to California, say LA or San Fran - there would be rioting in the streets.
We DESERVE some humiliation in this; because it’s the honest truth.
I already cited the numerous tornadoes - then there was the flood a few years back where most of downtown was evacuated.
Maybe they heard stories from their daddies about the Chicago blizzard of 1967, back in the day when the Chicago Police had orders to shoot looters:
"Incidents of looting took place: in one incident, a ten year old girl became a fatality when she was caught in a gun battle between police and looters."
Or New Orleans....
>>We have shop-owners to jack up the prices to gouge customers...In Japan, we are witnessing shopowners LOWER prices to the people can afford food;
That is a good point. While no where near the impact of this tsunami, we had two snow storms dump 43 inches of snow here in less than a week. Roofs started collapsing a few days later. Prices for roof rakes went up a good 50% for those that had them in stock. People fleeced towns and homeowners to shovel the snow off their roof. Sure it comes down to ‘what the market will bear’ but one small town got charged 300K to clear the roofs of their schools.
But we also had neighbors helping each other out for free, so not all is lost.
Don't ask the qeustions you are unwilling to hear the answers to. There was looting, by the FBI.
The author didn’t mention New Orleans but in essence you did with your labeling of the article as ‘anti-USA Barf alert’. Close your mind if you chose to but he is correct. I was thinking about a similar subject last night when I was on the subway in Boston. The drivers, security, and cashiers were all of a certain race and I’d bet heavily that they got their jobs largely because of it. They are making grossly disproportionate amounts of money compared to their skill level because they have kicked and screamed and got liberal fools to buy into the scam in return for votes. Yet Asians make up a large percentage of the population but I didn’t see one working on the T. I conclude that the reason for this is that they want to earn what they get and consequently respect it more. Hence they culturally respect others belongings also and therefore no looting in Japan...and congratulations to St. John’s Prep high school basketball!
"Mind if I play through?"....
Yep. The whole Middle East is on fire, Japan is experiencing one long nightmare that gets worse by the hour, but hey! Playing golf day after day is exhausting. He NEEDS another vacation.
When Bush was in office, most of his 'vacations' were working vacations at his ranch - the Western White House (which was, I believe, expressly built where it was and how it was, for the express purpose of being able to conduct business without ANYone being able to listen in) -
If not to the ranch, he'd most likely vacation at the family home in Maine. And he came quietly without an entourage of planes and limos and thousands of people. He didn't stay in Taj Mahal hotels or Martha's vineyard Mega Mansions, etc. - and in his 8 yrs he didn't play as much golf as this piece of cr*p already has - nor, in the 8 yrs, was he on vacation as much as this poor excuse for a human being has already.
Conservatives have GOT to get more news outlets out there! We have to neutralize the Socialists First Reich - the MSM.
The tornadoes hit in the suburbs, not closer in near the lake. The 'burbs are not exactly known for areas of looting. And the Chicago flood that was isolated to the Loop and didn't absorb much in police resources. Looting is most likely to occur when the police are distracted, namely with crowd-control or emergency disaster relief.
One can admire the Japanese for their stoic response, and admit the fact that Detroit or Baltimore would be on fire by now, without necessarily being anti-American.
I see it as being regrettably true.
It happened in New Orleans and that city got looted to the max!!!!!
He must be flashing back to the 1977 blackout, where there was quite a bit of looting, But only in certain NY neighborhoods.
He did make a couple of remarks .... his problem is that he generalized about Americans some behavior that would be "typical" only in certain blue counties.
The other side of the coin is that this deliberate calmness could work against the Japanese if there's a big accident up north and everybody gets a lungful of plutonium dust.
OMG! That is terrific. One picture is worth a thousand words, INDEED. Did you do that?
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