Land Of The Rising Sun

As I write, the sun is rising on Japan on the first day after the earthquake/tsunami. 

After a day of watching videos of the destruction,  the pictures that are now appearing of the damage left behind are still hard to comprehend.  Mountains of rubble everywhere; where would you even start with putting things back together?  How will they be able to hunt for survivors?  And what happens if that nuclear plant goes kaboom? If I feel this helpless here in the States, how much worse it must be for the Japanese people.

Makes you wonder too, what if it happened here?  We certainly have enough fault lines here; a huge earthquake could happen along any of them.  Now, Americans never hesitate to run in to help when their neighbors are in trouble (New Orleans notwithstanding), but we tend not to plan our infastructure with disaster in mind.  We buy insurance and hope for the best.  The best isn't always what you get...

I'm sure in the days to come we'll all be seeing much more of the unfolding horror story that is occuring in the ancient island nation of Japan.  It's going to take the best efforts of the Japanese (and I'm sure some help from its allies) to rebuild and restore.  Thoughts and prayers are with them.