It is important for India to be a bridge over troubled waters

Had a series of misfortunes not struck Japan so viciously, the world’s attention might have remained focused on Libya and Gaddafi’s atrocities there. Japan’s misery has turned into a stroke of luck for Gaddafi.

Still, even as the world mourns with Japan in its unparalleled tragedy, it will be haunted for long by the troubled conscience that the people of Libya had been left to fend for themselves.

Japan’s though wasn’t the largest disaster in recent history. That unfortunate distinction belongs to Kolkata. A tsunami had hit Kolkata on 11 October 1737 resulting in 3,00,000 deaths.

Of late scientists have begun to doubt that figure largely on the presumption that the population of Kolkata was much smaller then. But that is not the issue.

What is important is the fact that a massive tsunami had devastated Kolkata and that a similar catastrophe could visit Kolkata again. Therefore the events and relief efforts currently underway in Japan could be of value to us.

Japan of course was reasonably well prepared for the event. In 1995 an earthquake of the magnitude of 6.9 had struck the city of Kobe. It caused a major devastation in the region; nearly 6,500 people were killed, 1,50,000 buildings were destroyed and another 1,80,000 buildings were damaged.

Over 6,00,000 people were made homeless and the overall financial damage was estimated to be in the region of $114 billion, or as much as 2.3% of Japan’s GDP.

Despite the enviably high level of its industrialisation then, experts had estimated that it could take up to five years for Kobe to be brought back to its feet. But Japan surprised them all.

A spanking new Kobe was ready within 18 months; with a highly advanced urban centre and gleaming high rises built to meet fresh challenges. Soon Kobe became an important industrial and business centre.

In contrast, Sendai region is less thickly populated and it is not a business centre on the scale of Kobe. Still, the scale of devastation in Sendai has been of biblical proportions. It began with a never ending earthquake; but the enduring impression many will carry is of a calm and disciplined reaction by the people. Soon thereafter a tsunami began to batter the region, giving people no reaction time.

The waves overwhelmed all and everything; the images of houses, ships and trucks being tossed about like toys by rampaging waters are bound to remain for a long time in public memory.

Entire cities have been flattened so completely that some of the survivors find it difficult to figure out where they had lived once.

At 8.9 the earthquake that hit Sendai was 178 times more powerful than the one that had struck Kobe in 1995. But the woes of the people aren’t over. There is the threat of another quake or a tsunami; a larger catastrophe in form of a nuclear meltdown looms too.

Already, the loss of life and property is enormous and this time it may take longer than 18 months to rebuild the cities. But we can take it as a given that the reconstruction will be the best that man and technology can offer.

In doing so Japan would not tolerate even the whiff of a CWG like scam. For Japanese, national pride outweighs everything else. It is also likely that Japan may emerge stronger out of this ordeal.

The expenditure on reconstruction might revive its stagnant economy.

Japan may not need outside help, but it has been appreciative of offers that are pouring in. USA is rushing its aircraft carriers and China is sending its ships.

Besides a purely humanitarian gesture, a major association with Japan’s relief efforts may be in our own interest too; as a lesson in disaster management and for our nuclear experts as Japan battles with multiple problems in its nuclear power plants.

This, essentially, is the time for us to help with men and material.
If Japan is our declared strategic partner, shouldn’t we reach out to them visibly and meaningfully in their hour of need? Rushing a supply of blankets may be a knee jerk reaction, but is it enough?

Can it be called a substantial help by a country that wants a seat in UN Security Council; and that too in the company of Japan? An effort, befitting a major state, is not noticeable so far.