Selene Delap in Seattle posted the following link on her facebook page:
Some Perspectives on the Japan Earthquake
It is worth reading to counterbalance the inflammatory coverage that seems to be the main theme of the earthquake/tsunami coverage outside the country (and maybe within, to a degree... I can't tell, given my nearly non-existant Japanese language skills).
I don't mean to downplay the enormity of this tragedy... five times the loss of life of the Trade towers (but .01 times the terror). The social and economic losses are staggering and scary. The dislocation of the power grid is a significant and long term problem, considering the country relies on nuclear power for 30% of its energy needs (some of the train problems at this time are due to energy issues, not track disruption).
As an interested observer, I am spending a fair amount of time reading about the Fukushima reactor issues, and my own understanding of it is that the consequences are far closer to Three Mile Island than Chernoble.
I gather that the University of Washington is calling its students back to the US, in response to state department travel warnings. Interesting that much of the information in this release describes the situation on March 11, and does not reflect what is happening in Japan today. Extreme caution is entirely defensible in circumstances of extreme problems and high uncertainty. If you're responsible to parents, the public, and the students themselves, it is understandable to err on the side of caution. From my own perspective on the ground, there seems much less to be concerned about.
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A 'bear claw' clam rake I saw in the Michinoku wooden boat museum in Aomori last December. I don't know how they fared in the quake. Thew Aomori harbor should have been well protected from the tsunami.
