The United States dispatched immediate aid to Japan in response to the massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit the northeastern coast on Friday, March 11 at 2:46 p.m. local time. The earthquake was initially declared to have an 8.9 magnitude. Three days later, the U.S. Geological Survey updated the magnitude to 9.0, and Japanese seismologists did the same thing independently.
This ranked the earthquake as the fourth largest in the world since 1900 and the largest in Japan in the past 130 years when modern instrumental recordings have been in use.
Hundreds of people were estimated dead immediately, and rescue efforts commenced while Japan continued to experienced aftershocks of the quake.
By March 12, several U.S. Marines aircraft groups boarded cargo to be taken to the mainland, and pilots flew helicopters to Naval Air FAcility Atsugi to provide help in the surrounding areas.
On March 13, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney released a statement regarding the United Sates’s response to the crisis in Japan. In this address, he said that “we have offered our Japanese friends whatever assistance is needed as America will stand with Japan as they recover and rebuild.”
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) began “coordinating U.S. government efforts in support of the Japanese government’s response.” The U.S. Ambassador declared the aftermath of the quake an emergency, which opened up the funding of $100K from USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance.
Response teams partly comprising of experts on energy and health were established immediately, as were rescue missions.
The end of the statement read, “From the moment this earthquake struck our State Department and Embassy and Consulates in Japan have been working around the clock to assist and inform U.S. citizens.”
By March 25, the Marine Expeditionary Force and the Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 265 had flown thousands of supplies into Japan, including 129,000 pounds of water, 4,200 pounds of food, 94,230 pounds of cargo.
Various Marine groups have been coordinating other missions as well, including the facilitation of distributing supplies. “Tomodachi, which means ‘friends’ in Japanese, was the name selected by Japan for this operation.”
According to Reuters.com , as of April 2, a total of 11,938 people have been confirmed as dead by Japan’s National Police Agency. An additional 15,478 people are reported missing.
Residents who live in areas around nuclear power plants have largely either left or been evacuated. The government estimates damages to be around $190 billion to $298 billion, making it one of the world’s most expensive disasters. 134 countries and 39 international organizations have offered assistance.
While this level of assistance from the United States and so many other countries is incredible and necessary, I cannot help but wonder where the U.S. was when Pakistan was blighted by massive flooding in July of 2010.
In no way am I trying to diminish the amount of death and destruction in Japan; on the contrary, I believe the U.S. has a responsibility to respond in the way it has. However, people are people are people, regardless of where they are when they are struck with a natural disaster.
OXFAM declared the Pakistani floods as the “worst humanitarian crisis that the UN has recognized.” The damage was greater than both the Haiti and Kashmir crises combined.
The flooding left over a fifth of the entire country underwater. Over 1,600 people were killed immediately. 20 million people were displaced.
The UN estimated that around 3.5 million children were at risk of contracting water-borne diseases, and as many as six million people faced the risk of contracting diarrhea, dysentery, etc. 70 percent of the roads and bridges in the affected areas were washing out.
The U.S. has undergone massive fundraising campaigns on a nation-wide level to raise money for the Japanese victims. Yet few people in the U.S. even remember that there was flooding in Pakistan last summer.
The question facing us as Americans is not whether these two disasters are comparable. The question is why our response was not comparable.
Do we help Japan because they like us more than Pakistan? because Japan is wealthier than Pakistan and therefore more worthy of saving? Where were our "friendship" operations there?
It is perhaps tempting to be hesitant in aiding a country like Pakistan with the excuse of not knowing where that money is going, and “it could just end up in the hands of future terrorists.”
To this argument, I would reply that it is common knowledge that organizations like the Red Cross and the UN are not going to be funding terrorism but serving people. Furthermore, all moral obligations to help aside, does the world really think that a flood-ravished country which receives a fraction of the help it needs will produce people who will love the West?
Political tension should never blind us from seeing the suffering of human beings. We as Americans claim all people are created equal. We need to start acting like we believe it.
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