
The Ghosts of the Tsunami - adiabatty
https://longreads.com/2017/10/24/the-ghosts-of-the-tsunami/
======
hudibras
Here is another excerpt from the book that this article is taken from, this
one talking more about the disaster at Okawa Elementary School. Be warned, it
might be difficult to read.

[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/24/the-school-
ben...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/24/the-school-beneath-the-
wave-the-unimaginable-tragedy-of-japans-tsunami)

~~~
kagamine
I read that at the time of publication. It made me both sad and angry; all of
those children... because of what amounted to bureaucracy. I can't imagine
what being a parent at work and too far away to react in time must have felt
like. Harrowing stories.

~~~
setr
It doesn't seem to me that the issue was bureaucracy, but the extreme scale of
the event and the complete lack of preparation regarding it. And to a degree,
the arrogance of teachers who should have realized they didn't know what to do
given the useless manual.

It was bureaucracy that stopped them from going to hill... but thats simply
because the bureaucracy was doing what it does to stop panic and chaos. In a
situation where the event was prepared for, having a small group of kids
yelling orders and running off _is exactly what you don 't want_. You don't
want conflicting orders running around; else (if the bureaucracy judged
correctly, and went to the hill), you'll end up with a group of kids and
teachers or parents not following orders and staying in the school instead.

------
ekianjo
The cult of the ancestors, mentioned in the article, is nothing specific to
Japan. Most civilizations in antiquity had their own version of it. And
progressively distant ancestors become god like figures, this is a well
observed mechanism outside of the leading monotheist religions.

~~~
digi_owl
Wile true, how many others can claim to be the main religion of an
industrialized nation after centuries of preachers from the ones holding sway
over most of the globe?

~~~
ekianjo
You are aware that Japanese massacred Christians en masse right? That explains
the current situation.

