Earthquakes and Tsunamis and Radiation

Lunchtime

A friend received a forwarded message from her mother, informing people not to stay outdoors for too long after 4pm today due to possible radiation present from the nuclear plants in Japan. Watching the muted Channel News Asia on TV made me feel very emotional as I've always felt a close affinity with Japan despite not being there even once before. This is probably attributed to my huge interest in Japanese culture and music. Looking at all the destruction and carnage just broke my heart.. I wonder when Japan can recover from this tragedy. When they do, I believe they'll come back stronger than before. Something like a fresh start for them.



On my way home

It was drizzling a little after I alighted from the company bus and my friend immediately whipped out her umbrella and shared it with me. Another friend followed suit. I decided to take the bus home instead of walking since it was drizzling but when the bus turned out of the interchange, I realised that it wasn't. Nope I wasn't afraid of the radiation or anything, just decided to accompany my friend and top up my ez-link card at the same time. Serious.



On the bus

The bus was quite packed and an elderly man was the last to board after chasing after it. When he boarded, the bus driver said (in Hokkien), " Hey, haven't seen you in a while!" The elderly man gave replied something which I don't remember and they continued their conversation in Hokkien. During a short lull in their conversation, the bus driver commented, "Japan is in a terrible situation now," to which the elderly man said "Heaven is punishing them," in reply.



Elderly man: You've never experienced it before but back then (he was referring to WWII) we all had to wear some form of identification around our arm and if they (Japanese) happened to dislike your face for whatever reason (this is my own translation but what he actually said was if they suspected you of being against them or something), they'll load you on a lorry and that'll probably be the last time anyone sees you again.



He went on to say that heaven has punished them 3 times, but the only one I know of was the Kobe earthquake in 1995 so I couldn't figure out what other serious disaster has befallen Japan since the war. Or perhaps he was referring to the triple tragedy: earthquake, tsunami, nuclear leak, but somehow I don't think so. I shall try and google to find out.



After that, the bus driver gave a (bitter?) laugh, saying, "Heaven is punishing them."

etc.,etc.,etc.

I wrote a lot more after this but due to a connection problem during posting, all of them was not saved under drafts and I've lost my train of thought...Anyway I was mentioning about how some people were gloating over Japan's misfortunes and how many other people were sympathetic enough to give these "gloaters" a piece of their mind. I was also talking about how the war tends to be mentioned at these times and how those gloaters might not gloat so much if (touchwood) the radiation leak becomes a worldwide crisis.

All I'm trying to say here is that we should be sympathetic towards them. Even if you are not sorry for them, gloating only shows how childish and immature you are.