The end of the empire of Japan

[Oleg Bach]

To much to clean up - to much to rebuild...suffering a recession along with large international debt...Japan is now offically back in the stone age..No one can imagine the extent of the material damage - not to mention environmental damage due to human junk washed back into the sea after the wave returns from whence it came...Empires rise and fall...Yesterday Japan fell...Nature builds you up and nature takes you down - the lord gives and the lord takes it away...Looks like the hand of God via mother nature has brought Japan to it's knees - a culture were status - pride and money - along with a sucide rate that is horrific amoungst slightly failed students does not deserve to exist...and now it is gone.

[bush_cheney2004]

Not only will Japan "recover", but it will grow stronger as the best prepared nation on the planet for earthquakes and tsunamis. Remember, Nagasaki and Hiroshima recovered nicely too.

Edited March 11, 2011 by bush_cheney2004

[GostHacked]

It depends on the amount and magnitude of the aftershocks. They were hit with a 7.1 only a couple days ago. We should expect more.

[scouterjim]

To much to clean up - to much to rebuild...suffering a recession along with large international debt...Japan is now offically back in the stone age..No one can imagine the extent of the material damage - not to mention environmental damage due to human junk washed back into the sea after the wave returns from whence it came...Empires rise and fall...Yesterday Japan fell...Nature builds you up and nature takes you down - the lord gives and the lord takes it away...Looks like the hand of God via mother nature has brought Japan to it's knees - a culture were status - pride and money - along with a sucide rate that is horrific amoungst slightly failed students does not deserve to exist...and now it is gone.

Will you say the same about Canada or the US if a city on the west coast of either nation gets hit with a major earthquaake?

Edited March 11, 2011 by scouterjim

[guyser]

Will you say the same about Canada or the US if a city on the west coast of either nation gets hit with a major earthquaake?

Oh he might........

[RB]

To much to clean up - to much to rebuild...suffering a recession along with large international debt...

I am not sure how you come to the conclusion that 'tis the end for Japan. Compare to the economies of the world Japan is 3rd, US is 14 trillion in debt, Japan 7

You can't compare japan economies to Greece and Jamaica

Japan economy is slightly below China valued - however china is still a developing economy

US and Japan are more mature economies

The yen didn't take a plunge, nor the US dollar didn't sky rocket as buyers move from the Yen to US$ - didn't happen

Japan will be a "OK"

[DogOnPorch]

Oh he might........

[bush_cheney2004]

Here is a link to the worst disasters in Canadian history. Most seem to be shipwrecks! Let's just say that compared to Japan's, they are modest. For instance, in 1923, Japan lost 123,000 people to earthquake and resulting fires.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_disasters_by_death_toll

[GostHacked]

The Pacific ring of Fire.

More devastation to come.

[Rue]

To much to clean up - to much to rebuild...suffering a recession along with large international debt...Japan is now offically back in the stone age..No one can imagine the extent of the material damage - not to mention environmental damage due to human junk washed back into the sea after the wave returns from whence it came...Empires rise and fall...Yesterday Japan fell...Nature builds you up and nature takes you down - the lord gives and the lord takes it away...Looks like the hand of God via mother nature has brought Japan to it's knees - a culture were status - pride and money - along with a sucide rate that is horrific amoungst slightly failed students does not deserve to exist...and now it is gone.

go to:

http://vivalaresolucion.com/inspiration/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/3217838348_ddabd72671_o-500x765.jpg

Edited March 11, 2011 by Rue

[GostHacked]

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/03/massive_earthquake_hits_japan.html

Words are not enough.

[bud]

three things:

1) economic and political dominance has been over for some time. it has nothing to do with the tsunami.

2) i disagree 100% about recovering. japan was prepared as much as possible for such a disasters. this is why coastal cities like tokyo were barely damaged. it's mostly farmland and rural villages who were hit hard.

3) the kobe earthquake, which hit right in the centre of the city, was quite devastating yet they pulled out successfully.

[Mr.Canada]

Some may view this as payback for Pearl Harbor. Maybe they were happy when they heard the news.

Edited March 12, 2011 by Mr.Canada

[Moonlight Graham]

To much to clean up - to much to rebuild...suffering a recession along with large international debt...Japan is now offically back in the stone age..No one can imagine the extent of the material damage - not to mention environmental damage due to human junk washed back into the sea after the wave returns from whence it came...Empires rise and fall...Yesterday Japan fell...Nature builds you up and nature takes you down - the lord gives and the lord takes it away...Looks like the hand of God via mother nature has brought Japan to it's knees - a culture were status - pride and money - along with a sucide rate that is horrific amoungst slightly failed students does not deserve to exist...and now it is gone.

What did the people of Japan ever do to you?

Grow up man. Friend, you are better than this.

[GostHacked]

What did the people of Japan ever do to you?

Grow up man. Friend, you are better than this.

Some heartless people out there for sure. I hope to never experience another quake myself. That one that shook the Ottawa area last summer, was more than enough for me. And only a 4.5. Very unsettling.

[Post To The Left]

To much to clean up - to much to rebuild...suffering a recession along with large international debt...Japan is now offically back in the stone age..No one can imagine the extent of the material damage - not to mention environmental damage due to human junk washed back into the sea after the wave returns from whence it came...Empires rise and fall...Yesterday Japan fell...Nature builds you up and nature takes you down - the lord gives and the lord takes it away...Looks like the hand of God via mother nature has brought Japan to it's knees - a culture were status - pride and money - along with a sucide rate that is horrific amoungst slightly failed students does not deserve to exist...and now it is gone.

Also keep in mind that most of the population live in the big cities, all of which are fine with minor damage. The small towns and villages that you see being wiped out by the tsunami are just relics of Japan's past. Most of Japan's rural population moved to the cities in the last 50 years. These coastal towns are filled with old people and people who serve and support the old people. The only reason these towns can exist are generous government subsidies. The farm land you saw being destroyed provides a fraction of Japan's actual food and are totally inefficient family plots that again only exist because the Japanese government gives them huge amounts of money. Basically the only viable industry in these welfare cities are construction and guess just what the earthquake? did created huge opportunities for construction employment.

[capricorn]

Some heartless people out there for sure.

I can't understand the lack of compassion in the face of such human suffering.

I hope to never experience another quake myself. That one that shook the Ottawa area last summer, was more than enough for me. And only a 4.5. Very unsettling.

I know. The feeling was very surreal and frightening. Now imagine the tremor in Japan at 8.9.

Have a look at this map of that rates earthquake zones in Canada.

http://ottawacitizennews.com/quakes/

[g_bambino]

Some may view this as payback for Pearl Harbor. Maybe they were happy when they heard the news.

Who? Pat Robertson?

[jbg]

Not only will Japan "recover", but it will grow stronger as the best prepared nation on the planet for earthquakes and tsunamis. Remember, Nagasaki and Hiroshima recovered nicely too.

Will you say the same about Canada or the US if a city on the west coast of either nation gets hit with a major earthquaake?

The U.S. also recovered nicely from the San Fransisco Earthquakes of, I believe, 1906 and 1989 and the Los Angeles Earthquake of, I believe, 1994. Organized societies such as the U.S. and Japan can recover. Disorganized ones such as Haiti, Pakistan and Indonesia, not so readily.

[William Ashley]

my only real concern right now is the nuclear situation -- but I doubt anything would happen....... if it did it would be sorta bad .. to say the least.

It is a highly unfortunate situation.

US people work there.... It would be a little tainted to think a masonic sacrifice would happen in this form

China The soviet far east and koreas blanketed with nuclear waste more powerful than chernobyl?

911 is nothing compared to that. BUT.. the chances are really really slim. Like i have a better chance of inheriting bill gates fortune than this happening.

No I don't recommend selling your home and buying gold. Except as an investment option if you are willing to live rough for a while and make tons of money as a result.

One has to wonder the effect of plant closures on Japans industry though.

53 nuclear reactors provide 34.5% of Japan's electricity.

"The closure of the plants, representing nearly 20 per cent of the country’s capacity"

http://www.therecord.com/news/world/article/500682--japanese-nuclear-reactors-in-peril

It is so wrong for me to say this, but the irony is tremendous if it actually happened, since Japan is a non nuclear state, that is against the use of nuclear weapons (and was the only country ever officially bombed with nuclear weapons by an enemy state.

My heart goes out to all the good people.

"There’s a basic cooling system that requires power, which they don’t have"

Its nice to see that engineers plan for these sorts of events. "Japan get hit with massive earthquake nuclear fallout to eastern asia too.

Its the akira complex.

None the less like I said my heart goes out to all the good people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKyig67y3NM

KILLER SUDOKU!

omg check out the picture here...

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20110311/OPINION/110319854?Title=PD-Editorial-Devastation

Looks like the US is on this one..

-------UPDATE

only a little bit radioactive steam is being let out

apparently it is just radioactive water nothing too serious for more than just a few km around it... like 3km radious... the hiroshima bomb effected more than that...... AND they evacuated 10km radius of people not trapped in their homes.

heck the Hiroshima firestorm was that big.

two nuclear power plants whose cooling systems have collapsed as a result of the earthquake,

*slap forhead*

Where is a giant cask of antimatter when you need one?

Edited March 12, 2011 by William Ashley

[xul]

China The soviet far east and koreas blanketed with nuclear waste more powerful than chernobyl?

The reactor of Chernobyl is a Soviet-designed High Power Channel-type Reactor(RBMK). Its structure and design is very different from the Pressurized Water Reactor(PWR)used in North America, Western Europe, China and Japan. The Chernobyl disaster took place because there was a design flaw in the reactor which would make the control rod jammed if the reactor overheated. The operator just could not stop the nuclear chain reaction in the RBMK so the overheated core of the reactor exploded and the explosion destructed the reactor casing which was used to contain the radioactive material of the core.

To a PWR, even if the core of the reactor is overheated, the fuel rods will melt and fall down to the bottom of the casing so the chain reaction will be spontaneously stopped. The explosion in Japan was just because of the hydrogen gas which came from the release valve. The reactor casing is still intact(that's very important). The explosion is totally chemical and outside the reactor casing. Before the explosion, the chain reaction in the core had already stopped and the amount of radioactive material released from the release valve was very small because the reactor casing was still undamaged. The property and consequence of this event are more like the Three Mile Island accident's in the USA, though the Hydrogen released from the reactor didn't exploded in the Three Mile Island accident.

Edited March 12, 2011 by xul

[GostHacked]

I can't understand the lack of compassion in the face of such human suffering.

I know. The feeling was very surreal and frightening. Now imagine the tremor in Japan at 8.9.

Have a look at this map of that rates earthquake zones in Canada.

http://ottawacitizennews.com/quakes/

I was born and raised in Sudbury ON. I am used to rock blasts from the mining, which is usually a sharp bang, then nothing. And sometimes the glasses in the cupboards shook. The earthquake was a slow oscillation side to side (the way I was standing) Maybe I should move out of this apartment, and get to a safer spot. Looks like I am in one of those red zones.

Expect the death toll to reach thousands. And I hope they manage to get the nuclear reactors settled down. That could end up worse than the quake itself. The possibility of two 'Chernobyls' is a very likely scenario, it will make the clean up effort damn near impossible at that point and render areas inhabitable.

[Post To The Left]

Expect the death toll to reach thousands. And I hope they manage to get the nuclear reactors settled down. That could end up worse than the quake itself. The possibility of two 'Chernobyls' is a very likely scenario, it will make the clean up effort damn near impossible at that point and render areas inhabitable.

Not really as talked about above Chernobyl was the result of a nuclear reaction out of control. In Japan as soon as the earthquake struck the reactors shut down. The problem was the cores even though they weren't reacting or "on" were still incredibly hot. The cooling systems failed and while trying to improvise a system to cool them down highly pressurized, non-nuclear, gasses exploded.

As for the body count. Thousands is a little high, maybe around one thousand is a little closer. Sure it looks horrible on TV but if you watch closely they keep showing the same few towns that were totally wiped out close to the epicentre. These towns had a good 20min warning before the tsunami struck and looks like they were evacuated. The dead are going to be elderly people who couldn't move, of which there will be a lot, and those who ignored the warning sirens.

Edited March 12, 2011 by Post To The Left

[GostHacked]

Not really as talked about above Chernobyl was the result of a nuclear reaction out of control. In Japan as soon as the earthquake struck the reactors shut down. The problem was the cores even though they weren't reacting or "on" were still incredibly hot. The cooling systems failed and while trying to improvise a system to cool them down highly pressurized, non-nuclear, gasses exploded.

So what happens when you can't cool the plant down enough? Sure they shut down, does not make the situation any less than Chernobyl.

As for the body count. Thousands is a little high, maybe around one thousand is a little closer. Sure it looks horrible on TV but if you watch closely they keep showing the same three towns that were totally wiped out close to the epicentre. These towns had a good 20min warning before the tsunami struck and looks like they were evacuated. The dead are going to be elderly people who couldn't move, of which there will be a lot, and those who ignored the warning sirens.

I expect 20-50 thousand. There was much underestimation of the amount of people who dies in the Indonesian tsunami some years ago. The coastline on the east part of Japan is in ruins, many villages along the coastline as well. I do not want the death toll to rise like that, but look at the destruction. Many articles are predicting over a thousand people, with some stats at 600 to 900 already. I seriously expect that number to skyrocket.

[Post To The Left]

So what happens when you can't cool the plant down enough? Sure they shut down, does not make the situation any less than Chernobyl.

You're missing the point, Chernobyl was an out of control nuclear reaction that resulted in a nuclear explosion. The Japanese reactors have shut down and aren't reacting anymore. The worst that could happen would be an explosion that caused nuclear material to be scattered over the surrounding area. The reports, so far, show that the explosion shown on TV didn't damage the reactor core so no nuclear material was released in the explosion. As we speak they're using sea water to cool the remaining reactors.

I expect 20-50 thousand. There was much underestimation of the amount of people who dies in the Indonesian tsunami some years ago. The coastline on the east part of Japan is in ruins, many villages along the coastline as well. I do not want the death toll to rise like that, but look at the destruction. Many articles are predicting over a thousand people, with some stats at 600 to 900 already. I seriously expect that number to skyrocket.

Yeah but in 2004 they didn't have any warning. People were just at home without any training on tsunamis. Japan is one of the most prepared countries in the world. People would have evacuated those small villages along the coast A) after the quake B ) when they heard the evacuation notice/sirens.

Edited March 12, 2011 by Post To The Left