Japan's despair turns to anger

This is starting to sound like Katrina. People are going without basic necessities for days and still have no word of when help will arrive.~Nikki

No home. No help. No hope: Now Japan's despair turns to anger

Tempers fray as the homeless wait for food and medicine

By Andrew Buncombe in Sendai

Thursday, 17 March 2011

As it struggles to gain control of a nuclear crisis and to feed and shelter the thousands of people left homeless by last week's devastating tsunami, the Japanese government is facing a growing chorus of criticism for its handling of the catastrophe.

Amid vociferous unease in the Japanese media at the apparent lack of progress in providing people in the country's stricken north-east with the bare essentials they need to survive, the governor of Fukushima prefecture, Yuhei Sato, has voiced frustration at shortages that were slowing evacuations. "Anxiety and anger felt by people have reached boiling point," he said. He warned evacuation centres did not have enough hot meals, medicine or petrol.

Meanwhile, in the first sign that international frustration at the Japanese government's reticence on the status of the stricken Fukushima power plant has reached a critical moment, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency issued a thinly-veiled rebuke to Prime Minister Naoto Kan's administration.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/no-home-no-help-no-hop...

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Permalink Reply by Tara on March 18, 2011 at 9:40am

It just goes to show us all the need to take care of ourselves rather than relying on our governments to take care of us. They have let us down time and time again. Preparation is the key.

My heart goes out to all who are suffering in Japan.

Permalink Reply by Anthony Kimbrough on March 18, 2011 at 11:55pm

Exactly. Then again, some may have lost everything. If they had prepped and their house was compromised, then they would have no other choice but to reply on the government. Chances are, even their neighbors ended up in the same condition.

Permalink Reply by Nikki on March 19, 2011 at 6:01pm

Japan has been the best prepared for earthquakes but this one was so unusually large it's unimaginable. And there is no way to prepare for tsunamis other than to restrict building on the coasts of vulnerable areas. The hard thing is waiting for utilities to be turned on. After the Northridge quake it was 5 or 6 days before the electricity was turned on and we only had cold water because the hot water heater had been damaged. My daughter was 9 months old and wanting to crawl and there was glass all over the floor which I couldn't vacuum up without electricity so I packed up the car and drove to Las Vegas to wait it out. But I was lucky because I had a place to come back to while many peoples' homes/apartments had been so damaged they were forced to leave. If you have a house that's off the grid you won't have to wait for help providing the house is still standing. And I don't know if the Japanese use solar/wind power although you would think they would since they are so technologically advanced.

Permalink Reply by Jack Black on March 20, 2011 at 3:51am