We empathise most with people who are people who are like us. The Japanese are not. The most obvious marker of difference to Westerners is their food (which I adore in small doses), but the differences go much, much deeper than that.
Some people, and some peoples, keep their emotions in check because they consider they have more pressing and less selfish matters to attend to. This is not to say they don't feel pain. For me, one of the most enduring images was when a sake factory owner, stoic and deliberate, broke down in tears of relief when he discovered one of his employees alive in a relief centre. He allowed himself a single minute of emotion, pulled himself together, and then trudged away to look for other staff.
Newspapers and Television are stupid. To prey on our fears, they sensationalise. This makes it challenging for us to distinguish relatively minor incidents, such as a worker at a nuclear reactor getting the equivalent of a mild case of sunburn, with a Tsunami that kills 20,000 stone dead.
Below is a photo of the flag at the Japanese Embassy in Dili, Timor-Leste. I challenge any one to walk past this and not feel a lump in their throat.
Nicely put. Thank you.
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