JAPAN’S RESPONSE

WHY JAPAN WAS READY

Nature is unstoppable, as Friday's earthquake demonstrated, but few nations have ever been quite as well prepared

Max Fisher

The Atlantic, March 14, 2011

When 60-year-old Hiromitsu Shinkawa found himself clinging to to the roof of his home, bobbing ten miles from shore in the open Pacific, where he had been swept by the tsunami following Friday's earthquake, he had every reason to expect that his fate, after 48 hours adrift, was probably sealed. So when sailors on a passing Japanese ship spotted Shinkawa, sent about a dozen rescuers to scoop him up, then wrapped him in a heavy yellow blanket and whisked him onto a nearby destroyer, where he was declared to be in good condition, the incident probably looked to many weary Japanese like a small miracle amid a much greater disaster.

Shinkawa, though certainly lucky, owes his life to more than just chance. Japanese naval ships had been crisscrossing the waters off of the country's northeast coast since the earthquake struck, ferrying supplies and workers as part of what has quickly become one of the largest such disaster response efforts on record. Over half a million people have been evacuated. Japan has deployed 100,000 troops, 190 planes, 45 boats, 120,000 blankets, and 110,000 liters of gasoline; they are aided by missions from South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Singapore, Mexico, and the U.S., which is drawing upon its massive military presence in Japan, including two aircraft carrier groups, each staffed with several thousand people. The rapidly growing number of search and rescue dogs shipped in from outside Japan is difficult to track, but they so far represent at least 10 different countries, including Singapore, which sent five dogs, and a Swiss contingent of collies that are described as "highly trained."

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