okay good....

It's worth mentioning that a number of people were -made- to leave, even though they did not want to and otherwise had not intended to. I know a number of exchange students who were in Nagoya and Kansai at the time who were sent home because the university decided to end their programme early.

I think it's weak for most people to just leave. However as Nyororin said, if they lived around Fukushima, that's something else.

depends on the reason, but usually they re too weak and get chewed up by the system.

you guys forgive them?

In the stories of those who up and left, there have been a few that have stunned me.

There was a woman living in Osaka who left, leaving her children at daycare and school, in a complete panic... She "forgot" her children completely, and gave no notification to anyone that she was leaving. Of course, once back in the UK, she contacted her (rightfully panicked) husband and told him to send the kids ASAP.

They are now involved in a divorce and she is trying to get the children by saying that he has kidnapped them. :rolleyes:

I was flooded with messages from people telling me to get out of Japan as quickly as possible. Screw my home, screw my husband, screw my life... Just take my kid and get out. I rolled my eyes at it, but others took it seriously and really ran off... Regardless of where they were.

It has all died down now, but I don't find myself feeling very forgiving toward those who ran screaming or those who ran groaning about inconveniences after the quake. And especially not those who looked to get their minutes of fame by giving idiotic interviews about how they felt their lives were in danger... When they lived in Shimane or the like.
I was contacted by the BBC and actually declined to give an interview because other than a bit of rocking daily life was not affected for me. I should have given it as they person they found instead was hysterical and packing to leave the country - from Kobe.

It just showed how much they considered Japan "home", and how quick they are to abandon it at the slightest hint of trouble.

People have flowed back to an extent now, but for a brief period of time I felt very very much like a special minority. I also made a ton of money taking on translation jobs for all those companies whose translators quit with no notice and fled. I hope all of those contracted workers never find a decent position again. Seriously, you don't just hop on a plane and leave your company in a bind because you are scared of... something that isn't even close to you.

I wonder where those people who left got their news and information from. Looking back at it, it appears to me the Japanese media were definitely not as alarmist as the "western" media, opting for a "more facts than conjecture" approach and maybe not reporting the news on a timely manner before they got all the information needed. The western media was all about ratings, fear-mongering, and exaggerations. I can't see the Japanese media being so alarmist than to suggest foreigners to "up and leave" as the people appear to have done. If it was because of family pressure from outside Japan, then they heeded warnings from people who didn't know what was going on or have no geographic sense of Japan.

I'm glad you were able to reap the rewards of being who you are and taking those jobs from the companies left in a bind. Perhaps it may be harder for them to find translators in the future and maybe they'll be more discriminating when handling applications.

I think it depends on the reason. If you left Japan because your electricity went out (which can happen in a thunderstorm) then that's pretty silly. If you were traveling with your job (like as an IT consultant working with another company) and your family wanted you to come back home, and your children were crying for you, or your company made you come back (etc., etc.,) then I should think your reason was genuine.

But if you abandoned Japan because you were scared your own @$$ would get hurt, then that's pretty shameful. What kind of mom would leave their children behind in a foreign country because she was scared for herself? Usually moms are concerned with getting their children out of the country first...

I recorded a program (DVR) that came on TV a few months ago that showed live footage from the earthquake that many people had taken. It was extremely sad, but it also showed how the Japanese teamed up together. A boy (I'm presuming a teenage boy) was video taping the earthquake, and started screaming, "Okaasaaannnn!!!!" and saying they had to leave immediately. They ran outside onto the street, and his mom started crying, and he held onto her while still filming. Another man was standing on a hill, and he was screaming, "Haiyaku!" (spell check) while people were coming out of their houses. He wouldn't leave until everyone came out and started walking up; he knew a tsunami was coming.

Thank you for this reminder. I know people who were forced to come home by their exchange program. It wasn't their fault they flooded the airport. There were surely thousands of them.

Right. The entire foreign student body at NUFS in Nagoya were dispatched home over the course of a week. That's more than 600 people alone. Never mind temporary workers there on business, holiday makers and so on.

French citizens, I think, were recalled by their government, some American universities told students that their insurance and student policies stated that in cases where national emergency was declared they had to pull them back home just in case, and by that point roughly over half the student body was leaving so NUFS pulled the plug for that year's programme. Besides, they had probably other concerns like their native student body to look after.