I grew up with a brother who enjoyed Godzilla movies, so I remember the images of the scaly, dinosaur-like giant tearing apart Japanese cities, innocent citizens screaming in fright and cowering in fear as the reptile smashed buildings and threw cars around. I didn’t know it then, but it turns out that Godzilla was one huge metaphor for Japan’s fears about nuclear weapons; in fact, he was a mutant supposedly created by radiation. The bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima during the final stages of World War II were still very fresh in the Japanese consciousness when Godzilla was created, and the fears that such death and destruction could be unleashed yet again shaped those generations that grew up after the war.
And now, ironically, death and destruction has rained down upon Japan, this time, not because of atomic bombs dropped by the enemy, but because of an earthquake and tsumami of unimaginable proportions. Those natural disasters have created a secondary disaster with far reaching implications — the threat of nuclear catastrophe is once again hanging over the only country against which nuclear weapons have ever been actively deployed. The suffering of the Japanese people is hard to watch. In the almost seven years since the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, the growing sophistication of social media has resulted in incredible postings on the Internet. They include live images of the water, like some living, growling, angry thing sweeping mightily over sea walls and roaring through entire towns.
Some of the most amazing stories are the ones we have heard where families have found loved ones through a YouTube video, or because of someone’s Facebook update or a tweet on Twitter. In this time of disaster, yet again, social media has proven its power to connect people quickly. There is that ability to check in quickly with loved ones in far-flung places. The brother in Singapore sent an E-mail saying he and his family were fine; he wasn’t traveling in Japan as he so often does, and the tsunami was not expected to reach Singaporean shores. The brother in Hawaii, where there were coastal warnings about high waves, and the tsunami potentially causing damage and danger, reported that he was fine as his home was located on 200 foot cliffs. Bill, who was staying with friends in Newport Beach, California, called to say there were warnings there, too, but no damage.
The world is so technologically interconnected that the traditional six degrees of separation seem far removed — it feels like it’s often one degree or just two. One of Japan’s hardest hit towns is Sendai, where my brother spent a year living with a Japanese family during high school and then another year after college. The house where the Satos lived until just a few years ago was wiped out by the tsunami, and had the family not chosen a new house on high ground, they very likely could have been doomed as so many of their friends and neighbors have been.
The day after the quake, we received a call from Megumi, my brother’s host sister, who told us that her family had all survived, but they were worried about food and water and how long their supplies would hold out. We have not heard from her again since then.
Aside from the pure creature necessities of food, clean water, and shelter, there is the continued fear of radiation from the failing nuclear plants. The secondary wave of death could be larger than the first and much more drawn out, if radiation continues to leak in amounts that are deadly.
When I worked in local television news, there was always the interest in localizing a national or international story. Tuning into the New York stations this week there was the serious anchorman asking “could it happen here?” But it is a legitimate question, especially since the nuclear plant closest to us, the Oyster Point Nuclear Power Plant, is located just about 50 miles away in Lacey Township, south of Toms River and out by the shore. And it is of the same design as some of the reactors in Japan that are believed to be melting down.
Are our nuclear power plants indeed safeguarded against disaster, either natural or man-made? Granted, New Jersey is not prone to earthquakes, but 9/11 should have been a wake-up call that the mind of man can conjure up pure evil and take many lives in the process.
Our hearts go out to everyone in Japan impacted by the earthquake and tsunami and the unfolding nuclear events. It will be weeks, even months, before we can measure the true extent of the devastation. And then, there is the inevitable economic fallout, the financial tsunami, if you will, as the toll moves beyond the measurement of lives lost to dollars and cents and the ripple effect on the world’s finances. Just when you think the economy is on the brink of recovery, there seems to be a new disaster to send it reeling backward again.
Godzilla, it seems, is still very much alive and well and roaring. Metaphor or not, when man-made energy co-exists with the laws of nature and the will of God, the danger is very real and unpredictable and heartbreaking.
