Abe'questionable handling
Kumamoto Erdbeben - 14. und 16. April 2016
Abe’s questionable handling of the Kumamoto quakes
BY JIRO YAMAGUCHI
The series of earthquakes that has hit central Kyushu since April 14 pose a variety of
problems for us. The Meteorological Agency has explained that this chain of temblors is
unprecedented in that the location of the hypocenter has moved. But one has to realize that it
was only recently in the long history of the Earth that humans began their observations of
seismic activities — and that it should come as no surprise if such a pattern of earthquakes
had happened frequently in the past. In short, we humans know very little about the
movements of the Earth. In Japan, earthquakes can hit anytime and anywhere.
Serious questions have been raised about the Abe administration’s response to the
Kumamoto quakes. The first is why it didn’t try to listen to people who were suffering from
the devastation brought by the temblors. The government’s call on evacuees to take shelter indoors following the initial quake that hit on April 14 drew the ire of the Kumamoto governor, who felt that officials in Tokyo didn’t understand the feelings of local residents.
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