JAPANESE DECORUM.

For the last two weeks, the world has learned so much about the Japanese people. The devastation that was the tsunami would have left a lesser nation in a state of complete incapacitation. I fear that would include the current United Kingdom.

The writer is old enough to be aware of the atrocities perpetrated by Japanese soldiers during WWII; so what is the difference? Their stoicism, I'm sure, is a constant, but perhaps the experience of nuclear attack in 1945 might have added that extra ingredient, turning them into the nation we are witnessing now; consideration for their neighbours, self control in such adversity following the devastation of the event. Even their equivalent of the BBC, NHK TV, advocates a stiff upper lip and best foot forward.

So how would the British have responded under similar circumstances? We could have expected the BBC to be consulting with the TUC, and finding plenty of survivors who were ready to complain that they were not getting something for nothing from the Government. Looting would have been rife amongst the pandemonium, not to mention counselling.


PERHAPS THE JAPANESE DON'T RECOGNIZE COUNSELLING.