Research Paper

Research Paper

On March 11, 2011 Japan had an undersea mega thrust earthquake, also known as “The Great East Japan Earthquake” with the magnitude of 9.0 (Mw). This earthquake caused huge tsunami waves of up to 133 feet and did much damage in Miyako. Not only did it cause flood to Japan, but there was a nuclear accident in Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant and hundreds of thousands of evacuees fled from this city of Japan. The material damage of the disaster was around “$300 billion, making it by far the world's costliest natural disaster” (Ishiguro, 2011). Within all this chaos, the Japanese victims remained calm and did not create crimes during this time. The main reason was due to the tradition and culture of Japan.

Many reasons were involved as to why looting did not occur in Japan. One was because since Japan was prone to earthquakes, they were also really prepared if and earthquake hit. After every disaster, the Japanese reconstruct the damaged building by finding a better way to rebuild it. "With every earthquake, with every devastating event, they learn from it and react” (Harries 2011). In 1923, when the Great Tokyo earthquake struck, Japan lost 142,800 victims and in 1995, the Kobe earthquake only lost 5,502 people. Although this recent earthquake killed around 14,000 people, it is small compared to the huge damage this earthquake caused. In 1923, the magnitude was 8.2 Mw while this 2011 earthquake was 9.0 magnitudes. Since Japan was prepared for earthquakes, looting for survival issues should not have occurred, but there could have been looting for luxurious items and there were none to be found. This shows that preparedness was not the reason why looters were not available in Japan. It was one of the possibilities.

Japan had a lot of support from the government and quick. The government prepared the Self Defense Force and passed out food, water, shelter, and medicine for the victims. They also got $1 billion in donation from the Japanese Red Cross....