From the Washington Post:
After the flood: $500,000 taken when Japan’s tsunami cracks a bank vault
By Associated Press, Tuesday, March 22, 7:44 AM
TOKYO — The earthquake and tsunami that pulverized coastal Japan
crippled a bank’s security mechanisms and left a vault wide open. That
allowed someone to walk off with 40 million yen ($500,000).
The March 11 tsunami washed over the Shinkin Bank, like much else in
Kesennuma, and police said between the wave’s power and the ensuing
power outages, the vault came open.
“The bank was flooded, and things were thrown all over. It was a total
mess. Somebody stole the money in the midst of the chaos,” said a police
official in Miyagi prefecture, where Kesennuma is located.
The bank notified police on Tuesday, 11 days after the disaster, said
the official, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity because he
was not authorized to talk to the media.
. . . . .
Wow! I consider myself a highly moral and law abiding person -- okay, a
prig. Yet, if I were walking down the street in a ruined, abandoned
town, and I happened to notice the bank walls are gone, the vault is
wide open, bags of money are strewn around . . . I wonder what I would
do? It would be hard to resist.
There has been a lot of talk about how Japanese people do not loot after
catastrophes of this nature, and they are generally law-abiding. That is
true, but it needs qualifications:
High government officials and construction corporations have looted &
vandalized the whole country for decades, leaving the land in a shambles
and the national debt at the highest level of any first world nation.
See Kerr, "Dogs and Demons."
They have lots of gangsters (yakuza). More per capita than most
countries, I believe. One thing about those yakuza though: they were the
first to bring massive donations of food, blankets and other relief
supplies to the tsunami victims. They got there several days before the
government arrived. They also opened up their headquarters buildings in
Tokyo to commuters stranded by the earthquake and power outages.
In the tsunami-affected areas, there is nothing left to loot (except
from that bank!). There is nothing of value to take. The cars, furniture
and everything else is ruined. The tsunami destroyed every single thing
up to a sharp line, and everything further on shore is intact, with
people living there.
I doubt many people are so stupid they would loot the areas close to the
Fukushima reactors. You don't see much evidence of looting in the
abandoned towns around Chernobyl either.
In previous catastrophes, especially the 1923 earthquake, I do not know
if there was looting, but the people in Tokyo massacred at least 6,000
Koreans and other minorities, accusing them of poisoning the water and
starting fires.
Reports of looting and violence in the U.S. after Katrina and other
disasters were exaggerated. Again, that may be because there wasn't much
left worth looting. Most of the reported looting was people taking food,
water and diapers from defunct grocery stores. I am pretty sure that is
happening in Japan. It is no crime since the store owners are likely
dead, and the goods are ruined anyway.
- Jed
