What is your opinion of the foreigner who leave Japan straight after the tsunami?

[kakurenbo]

Since I've never been a part of a major natural disaster I can't be sure with how I'd react but if I was in a foreign country I think I would want to go home. I'm stuck in California for a couple more years but if the big earthquake beats my departure date, you will see me on the first plane out. Not really a paranoia thing but a comfort of being surrounded by family thing.

[tokusatsufan]

Originally Posted by masaegu

Those who left just because everyone else left, I do not welcome back, period.

That's quite an extreme way of putting it.

[termogard]

Originally Posted by tokusatsufan

That's quite an extreme way of putting it.

Perhaps, he dislikes cowards and that's his right. Nothing strange.

[mikeyzan]

Originally Posted by termogard

Perhaps, he dislikes cowards and that's his right. Nothing strange.

perhaps he dun like foreigners ?

[Nyororin]

I don't really feel either way about students or people here on short trips cutting things short to head home... The people who I found myself disgusted (a bit strong a term, but "disappointed" would be too weak) by were those who had full fledged lives here... Or who left their jobs and responsibilities at the drop of a hat - often giving little to no notice. Months after things settled down, I found myself encountering countless complaints from those who had just hopped on a plane. They were coming back and demanding their jobs back - and crying discrimination when companies weren't so willing to trust them again.
I even received nasty threats from a translator who had left his job with zero notice a few days after the quake, right in the middle of an intensive project. He was very very angry that I had taken his high-paying translation job, and that the company was refusing to pay him vacation pay because they had to pay me to do the job he completely abandoned. (Seriously. He ran off and didn't even email the company until a week later.)

To me, it seemed that the people who were distant from the disaster but who still packed up and left ASAP were looking for an excuse to get out of Japan... And they found a convenient one.

[masaegu]

Originally Posted by tokusatsufan

That's quite an extreme way of putting it.

Because you would have exactly been one of those people.

[crime60]

when a tropical storm hit our place, I was away, in my workplace... It was the 1st to hit us so no one expected the damage... It was disastrous, I left the work place and reached early in the morning second day... The image is still vivid in my mind, as if it's happening right now. I live in a small town surrounded by mountains with one great, 7km long valley as a way in and out... It was full of water and people heading the same direction, out.
People of all age and gender walking in one direction, all with the same expression of fear, sadness and wonder all mixed up. it was the only choice for most of them really, and some are helping out... for me when I got there, I wanted them to evacuat all the old, the young, women and disabled... I wanted only the men the capable ones to stay... But most of the old men and women didn't want to leave, they were clinging on the walls that they were bourne into... I told my grandfather to go stay in my aunts place in a town that was less damaged and he was " and whom do you think will take care of these ruins"...
there are people who think that they can contribute and be handy in such situations, and there are others helpless or cowardly or even selfish... we are humanbeings after all

[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.)

[mikeyzan]

i remember there are some expat from singapore who refuse to leave until today. i think they were not very far from from the actual disaster areas. i asked them why they not leaving like the rest of foreigner..they say "lives still have to carry on and work still need to be done".

[crime60]

Nyororin, we do have expats who are making a living in my town, they got affected too... but unlike what happens in Japan, most of them decided to stay and help out, maybe because there was no big issue like a nuclear disaster in the horizon after the cyclone, I don't know, but they stayed and helped and we are back... But in such situations like what happened there, sometimes you have to cool you head and look at the greater picture,,,(Bad people leaving), a nation as great as Japanese nation, should not relay on such people to get the best of it when in peace... WITH ALL RESPECT TO THE LOST ONES(may those souls r.i.p), THE AFFECTED, AND THE LOVERS of this nation, consider it a natural cleanout...

Please excuse my poor expression, no offense meant.