[Nyororin]

Crime60 - your example doesn't really apply to this situation.
Why? Because there were very few foreigners in areas that actually suffered. No one would come close to blaming them for evacuating. That would be silly.

Most of those who left Japan were far far away from the actual disaster areas. Many were so far that there was no way it could affect them in any way whatsoever. I seriously felt like slapping some of the foreigners all to ready to give interviews about the horror and terror... When they were further away from it that I was. (The house shook long enough to wake me from a nap, but not strong enough to actually make me do much other than check the earthquake info via cell phone. There was *absolutely nothing* that affected my quality of life, let alone my safety, during the time afterward. )

It honestly seemed that a very large chunk of the foreign community... Or rather, English speaking expats in particular... Were receiving their news solely from overseas sources without bothering to so much as look outside their doors. When there were reports of people dying in the streets of Tokyo (never happened, but it was a sensational report that could get viewers), foreign residents up and fled for safety. Instead of correcting relatives who cried that they were all going to die, even if they were on the other side of the country, they rushed and left the country.

I don't think anyone expected people in areas that were seriously hit to stay around. Or even in areas moderately hit. If you need to evacuate, you had might as well head abroad if you have the option - staying with family in another country is better than hopping around in hotels in Japan.
It is the people who did the equivalent of people living in Washington leaving the US because of an earthquake in southern California that leaves me rolling my eyes.

I don't know. I don't even think it was the leaving itself that irritated me - to each his own. It was the whole attitude of the affair, and the hate directed at those who didn't choose to leave at the time... And the runoff worry that any English speaking expat would jump up and leave at the slightest hint of trouble. It was also a great chance for a lot of people to air their true feelings about Japan, with racism showing up that reminded me of the type of petty idiocy I experienced being an international student in a Japanese high school that didn't hate Japan. (From other exchange students)

I suppose it is something you would have had to be involved in to really understand. There was even a Facebook support group for those who were choosing to stay. It was really a fight against fear-mongering western media that had gone entirely out of control, and groups of fleeing expats that wanted to get support for abandoning jobs and responsibilities by basically lying about what it was like (and their hatred for those who were calling them out on it by staying here and saying that, no, half of Japan was not in ruins and where they lived didn't even so much as shake.)