What India can learn from the Japan crisis

The whole world is, by now, aware of what catastrophe has befallen the world’s third largest economy, Japan. The earthquakes and the tsunamis that are still plundering freely all over the island nation have already destroyed most of what perhaps symbolized the strength and beauty of the Land of the Rising Sun.

World media stands with bated breath as reports of a possible meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear reactor constantly trouble the minds. Everybody is worried about the people of Japan. Now and then, stories of survival, of disappearance, of injury and even of death arrive creating a chain of uncontrollable emotions. These emotions have brought people together and far too close than they ever were.

We, here in India, can do whatever is in our hands to help and bring back our friends trapped in the middle of the rumble. But this is not where it all ends. India must learn two things from this East Asian disaster.

First: Avoid, and if possible stop, use of power generation through nuclear reactors. Japan had 55 operating nuclear power plants before the quake struck. Threat to the people is more from radiation leakage from the damaged reactors than any other quake or tsunami. In a way, it was the industrial needs of the Japanese that made them erect one reactor after another thereby dotting their islands with ‘those giant domes’. India too has similar needs and thus the government of this country has a valid reason to construct the heavyweights of power generation of which we already have six. Plus, the advantage is that most parts of India do not fall under the more dangerous zones of the seismic belt. However, no one in this world has ever been able to predict the next move of planet Earth. When Japan, a nation far ahead of our country in terms of development, stood a mute spectator to the wrath of Mother Nature, where do you think we stand?

This brings us to the second point. India should also learn the way of the Samurai. In a span of five years, from 1943 to 1948, Japan survived four earthquakes and two atomic blasts. Hiroshima and Nagasaki still bring sad memories of the devastation that wiped out all traces of human existence off the map of the two cities on August 6 and 9, 1945. Japan surrendered and has since never raised a standing army (except for self defence purposes). Despite its superb engineering skills, Japan cannot export arms to other nations. Still, the country has electronics manufacturing giants in the form of Sony, Toyota, Honda, Canon, Panasonic, Nintendo and the like. All the mentioned companies have very solid business foundations in India. From the rubble that it was reduced to by the end of the World War II, Japan has risen like a phoenix. I am sure that even this cataclysm would fail to diminish the never-say-die spirit of the Japanese. If all goes smooth and nature tones down its fury on Japan, then in less than two years time the country will be back to normal with everything rebuilt in such a fashion that not even a scar of this disaster would remain.

Questions thus arise as to why we haven’t achieved the level of development like that of Japan. Where do we lack? We have a larger geographical area and natural resources than Japan. We have no dearth of talented manpower. Our country has thankfully been spared of the frequent earthquakes and tsunamis that rock the island nation. Yet, we are far behind them in terms of GDP, HDI, R&D, Industry and even civic administration. Why is that so? This is what we need to think about while we watch the horror story being scripted in Japan.