The story in Japan is so huge, human element can get lost

The widespread devastation of the 8.9-magnitude earthquake — the most powerful in Japan’s recorded history — and the resultant tsunami that washed over the northeastern coast of the island make it possible to lose sight of the real story.

Consider:

In the aftermath of the earthquake as many as six of the country’s 55 nuclear reactors are crippled and in some danger of catastrophic failure.

Japan, one of the world’s biggest economies, was already heavily in debt and the extraordinary costs of recovery from this disaster endanger an economic recovery the nation has been pursing for more than a decade.

Following the 1995 Kobe earthquake, Japan became a world leader in engineering new structures and retrofitting old ones to withstand even violent earthquakes, yet the damage was severe.

The more complicated the story, the more facets that it has, the easier it is to loose sight of the most important element, the human element.

Hundreds of people are known dead. Thousands are missing and feared dead.

And every one of those deaths has a story behind it. There were parents and children torn from each other’s arms. Husbands and wives separated, one surviving and one not. Nurses and aides who made valiant efforts to move hospital patients to safety — sometimes in vain.

We in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys saw such heroism and such pain on one scale a quarter century ago when a tornado swept through the area killing dozens of people. Imagine that devastation multiplied by a factor of 100 or even 1,000.

Even the visual markers have changed. In the past, aerial photographs could convey some of the sense of nature’s power to destroy property and disrupt or take lives.

Today, series of satellite images have been compiled that show huge swatches of Japan before Friday and after. The images, some put together by The New York Times, show village- sized areas that contained hundreds of homes and businesses one day and were virtually swept clean the next. Large sections of land remain under water, perhaps permanently, given the power of the earthquake to change the typography along the coast.

Those pictures, as well as the photographs and video that have come to dominate the media over the weekend, remind us all of how insignificant the accomplishments of men can be when the strongest forces of nature are unleashed.

Be helpful, but cautious

But while people do not have the power to stop the forces of nature, they do have the ability to respond afterward, to reach across the oceans to help the injured, to feed and house those left homeless and, in the case of the crippled nuclear plants, to provide technical assistance that might avert further disaster.

For average citizens who want to feel they’re helping there are multiple agencies, governmental and nongovernmental, that can be trusted to use their resources wisely. Unfortunately, at times such as these there are also ghouls who attempt to prey on the kind-hearted and profit from their generosity. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has warned Ohioans to be wary of telephone solicitors seeking donations on behalf of earthquake and tsunami victims. People receiving such calls should not be shy in asking how much of their donation will go to charity and how much will go to the solicitor and should tell a phone solicitor to mail them materials about the charity. They should not provide personal information such as credit card numbers or bank account numbers to an unknown solicitor and should not agree to have a solicitor stop by to pick up a donation.

Established relief agencies already have boots on the ground in Japan and others will be arriving. While they need donations to cover those costs, the little bit of time it will take for a donor to verify that he or she is dealing with an established and trusted entity will be time well spent and will not hamper humanitarian efforts.