Fukushima and the Lessons of the Past as Lessons for the Future

The disastrous calamity that hit Japan on March 11 with an initial earthquake of an unprecedented scale, then, the tsunami, estimated to have measured 23 meters or more. The impact of the disaster is such that it is bound to have broad social and political repercussions. For the time being, however, the Japanese rest their case. Now is not the time to focus on officials and others who are responsible for negligence. The lesson that Japan as a nation and a people will draw will be quite simple. 2011 will become a new 1868 or 1945, the two grand turning points in Japan’s modern history.