By: Tiffany Ungter

How can Japan, one of the most technologically advanced nations of our time, fall to nature? you may or may not be asking.

In reading the articles about the tragic earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan this past Friday I’ve noticed a slew of different responses from reader commentary. For the most part, people are sympathetic and express their condolences, saying such things as, “Japan, you’re in my prayers.” But surprisingly that’s not the only type of response that I’ve seen. There isn’t a neutral stance that you can take about the issue; either you feel sorry, or you don’t. That gets me to the second type of response, which goes something along the lines of this: “God punishes places full of sin,” thus indicating that Japan, in its entirety somehow, is an island of sin. It truly baffles me that anyone could have such a mindset about what happened to Japan—a relatively docile, peaceful nation.

I’m not surprised that people are associating biblical, apocalyptic rhetoric with the event. Look at the facts. No other natural disaster of this magnitude has happened in the area for some 1,200 years. The earthquake, NASA scientists are claiming, sped up the earth’s rotation by 1.6 microseconds. Thousands are dead, even more missing, and the numbers mount in soldiers, volunteers, and other responsive teams trying to contain the situation. The waves of the tsunami that most affected Japan recently reached Hawaii, Oregon, and California—though having a significantly diminished impact. And, what’s worse, a radiation plant now has a leak. It’s the trauma that just keeps on giving. So yeah, it’s reasonable to imagine that in the shadow of such a dark and tragic event that some people will turn to faith in attempting to reconcile what happened with some facsimile of reason.

It can be seen that what happened five years ago in Louisiana is approximate (not exact) to what’s happening in Japan right now, both in physical cost and reaction by the rest of the population. If you’ll recall, there was a small group of people stating that New Orleans, full of extravagance, hedonism, and allure, fell prey to the wrath of God. Almost the exact sort of discourse is happening again. Blaming the victim of a natural disaster has that same nasty aftertaste of blaming a rape victim for being raped. It makes no sense.

And thus, I would like to engage in enlightened discussion about the reasons as to why this happened in Japan, or, to a larger extent, will happen in the future somewhere else. The causes of the tsunami seem less to do with anything that God did, but more so with Global Warming. The ice caps melt, the ocean rises, and, ipso facto, whenever an earthquake strikes the effects are much more devastating. So perhaps rather than pointing to any sort of divine intervention, we should conscientiously judge our own actions, for it is the entirety of the human population within the past century that’s at fault.

Though I’m not necessarily pointing towards the direction of blame. In fact, that’s what I’m contending. I truly find what happened in Japan a tragedy that will be forever engrained within the cultural memory of Japan and the rest of the world. Thus I am indicating a globalized, conscious effort towards responsibility for what happened. Natural disasters are bound to happen, and it’s unavoidable. But if people combine in said global and conscious effort, then perhaps we can effectively diminish the enormity of such events. Not erase, but abate.

It’s an absurd reality whenever events such as the 8.9 earthquake and ensuing tsunami happen without an expressed reason. And, when confronted by absurdity, mankind usually ignores it. Why? An absurd reality only confirms our mortality, and no one’s quite big on wanting to confront the everlasting mortality question. But it is a part of our global conscience to approach mortality, and the absurdity thereof, with a sense of purpose and resolve. There is no divine explanation to what happened. If anything, it’s purely man’s fault. But again, rather than assigning blame less than a few hours after thousands have died, perhaps we should have the courtesy to grieve alongside the nation, and then take the joint responsibility in helping them out.