OSAKA/LONDON — More than two weeks after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake triggered a horrendous tsunami and crippling damage to a major nuclear plant in northeast Honshu, it is as if Japan is still sleeping through a raging nightmare. Initially, economists tried to play down the damage, saying that this part of Japan was less economically significant than Kobe, which was bashed in 1995.
It is becoming clear that the triple-disaster of quake, tsunami and nuclear accident in the Tohoku-Pacific region has produced immense damage not only to the economy of Japan and the world, but also to the psyche of Japan.
The devastated area is a wasteland, with swaths of towns and villages destroyed and the debris swept and scattered miles inland. It is humbling to witness the fortitude of victims, some with harrowing tales of their own narrow escapes and the numbing deaths of loved ones. They sit patiently in inadequate temporary shelters with precious few amenities that would allow them to dare to hope to rebuild their shattered lives.