PRAGUE — The shattering earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11 have wrought devastating physical damage — aggravated by the threat of a nuclear disaster — across the country's northeastern coastal areas, and have rekindled grave fears in the only country to have experienced fully the atom's potential for horror.
Thousands of people are missing, hundreds of thousands have been displaced, and millions are without water, food, or heating in near-freezing temperatures. The death toll is expected to exceed 15,000.
Because Japan is a rich country, some people may be tempted to view it as being in a position to undertake most of the effort to rebuild on its own. After all, in a post-economic-crisis world of scarce public and private resources, disaster-relief efforts, one might argue, should target only poorer countries and peoples.