HONOLULU, EAST-WEST WIRE — As the triple disasters of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear emergency continue to wreak havoc on Japan, our condolences and admiration go out to the Japanese people for the courage and determination with which they are dealing with the aftereffects of an unprecedented set of calamities, even for a country that is possibly the best prepared in the world for handling such events.

Monday morning quarterbacks are already asking why Japan, a country known for its frequent earthquakes and occasionally severe tsunami (a word that originated in Japan), would decide to build so many nuclear power plants, and site so many of them in coastal areas.

Japan's lack of domestic oil resources was a principal contributor to its role in the World War II, and the end of that war did not change the country's feeling of vulnerability to oil-supply disruptions. A program to develop the peaceful uses of nuclear energy was initiated in 1954, and the first commercial reactors were built during the 1970s in cooperation with General Electric and Westinghouse.