Patio11's perspective on the Japan Earthquake

#1

Post by swombat » Sun, Mar 13, 2011, 5:06 PM UTC

Patio11's perspective on the Japan Earthquake
kalzumeus.com

Re: Patio11's perspective on the Japan Earthquake

#2

Post by patio11 » Sun, Mar 13, 2011, 5:30 PM UTC

There is a bit of overlap here with my comments on HN the last couple of days. I've had to explain it to 100+ friends, family, customers, clients, etc, so I figured I might as well polish it and put it somewhere public.

At the risk of stating the obvious: I am not "HN's Japan Guy." There are many, many HNers in Japan. A few dozen of them make it out to the Tokyo meetups. There are many, many perspectives on this disaster -- this is just my wee little contribution from a place well removed from most of the worst scenes.

Re: Patio11's perspective on the Japan Earthquake

#3

Post by Klonoar » Sun, Mar 13, 2011, 5:32 PM UTC

Thank. Fucking. God.

I am getting increasingly tired of explaining these points to everyone who asks me (currently in Tokyo). A well worded piece that I can just link to, very nice to see at the moment.

Re: Patio11's perspective on the Japan Earthquake

#4

Post by pieter » Sun, Mar 13, 2011, 5:36 PM UTC

Perhaps someone can tell about about the perception of nuclear reactors in Japan after the earthquake. Is there any knee-jerk reaction calling for the demolition of all existing reactors and stopping of all plans, or do most people have the same reaction Patrick has, seeing this as somewhat of a success? Is there any hysteria about the current problems with some of the reactors?

Re: Patio11's perspective on the Japan Earthquake

#5

Post by patio11 » Sun, Mar 13, 2011, 5:41 PM UTC

pieter wrote: post #4

Perhaps someone can tell about about the perception of nuclear reactors in Japan after the earthquake. Is there any knee-jerk reaction calling for the demolition of all existing reactors and stopping of all plans, or do most people have the same reaction Patrick has, seeing this as somewhat of a success? Is there any hysteria about the current problems with some of the reactors?

Interest in the nuclear question is running very high. Japan historically has a complicated relationship with nuclear power, for all the obvious reasons. (Heck, I got freaked out when I saw the word "hibakusha" used in print today in a context not related to WWII.)

I would characterize the tenor of reports I saw on NHK earlier as "visible concern" on the part of the anchor and "restrained professionalism" on the part of their expert guests

I've said this before, though: Japan is a big country and it's diversity is often underappreciated. There is largely not a monolithic Japanese viewpoint on this. The same goes for just about everything. (See also: the United States.)

Re: Patio11's perspective on the Japan Earthquake

#6

Post by shadowsun7 » Sun, Mar 13, 2011, 5:43 PM UTC

Thank you, patio11. I saw this on Twitter and read half of it with my mouth hanging open. (Somewhat related: this great post by Makiko Itoh http://makikoitoh.com/journal/memorable-tweet-japan-earthqua...)

I can't help but think what a disaster of this scale would look like in almost any other country but Japan. Checklists at almost every level of response is unimaginable in most countries I know (though maybe Singapore ...). If this were a 3rd world nation things would have been very, very different.

Re: Patio11's perspective on the Japan Earthquake

#7

Post by mantas » Sun, Mar 13, 2011, 5:48 PM UTC

Agreed. After living in Japan for a while, european point of view on this earthquake makes me smile.

Anyway, prayers and best wishes to Japan.

On nuclear reactors: I bet Japan will restart them soon. Give them a month, max 3. For the fcks sake, they still hunt whales. IMHO Japan is one of those countries that still don't give a damn about loud-screamos. Although they'll upgrade their plants to prevent failure like this one. Kudos to them.

Re: Patio11's perspective on the Japan Earthquake

#8

Post by daniel-cussen » Sun, Mar 13, 2011, 5:50 PM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #2

There is a bit of overlap here with my comments on HN the last couple of days. I've had to explain it to 100+ friends, family, customers, clients, etc, so I figured I might as well polish it and put it somewhere public. At the risk of stating the obvious: I am not "HN's Japan Guy." There are many, many HNers in Japan. A few dozen of them make it out to the Tokyo meetups. There are many, many perspectives on this disa…

You're the only prolific HNer in Japan, though. You have also lived in the West, I believe, so that informs your perspective.

Re: Patio11's perspective on the Japan Earthquake

#9

Post by bcl » Sun, Mar 13, 2011, 5:54 PM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #2

There is a bit of overlap here with my comments on HN the last couple of days. I've had to explain it to 100+ friends, family, customers, clients, etc, so I figured I might as well polish it and put it somewhere public. At the risk of stating the obvious: I am not "HN's Japan Guy." There are many, many HNers in Japan. A few dozen of them make it out to the Tokyo meetups. There are many, many perspectives on this disa…

Thanks for posting this.

Re: Patio11's perspective on the Japan Earthquake

#10

Post by nborgo » Sun, Mar 13, 2011, 5:57 PM UTC

"An earlier draft of this post said 'lucky.' I have since reworded because, honestly, screw luck. Luck had absolutely nothing to do with it. Decades of good engineering, planning, and following the bloody checklist are why this was a serious disaster and not a nation-ending catastrophe like it would have been in many, many other places."

This is fantastic and worth repeating. Thank you.