Japan is living through some of the worst times in its history since the end of the Second World War. It is as though the heavens had conspired with the earth and all the elements had attacked Japan. If this was not enough, there is the threat of a nuclear catastrophe hanging over the stricken country like the Sword of Damocles. Reports of peripheral damage are horrifying. Yet reports about people, about the Japanese themselves, are not so dramatic.

The Japanese are not panicking, are not running scared. They are patient. Twenty floors up in a collapsing skyscraper they gather in an orderly manner. Calmly, at a pace suited to the oldest person in the group. They help each other. They are governed by the principle of others first, me last. There was a report in the media about a Mrs. Hiroko Yamashita, who lay trapped under a bookcase with a shattered ankle. When after many long hours the woman was found by rescuers, her first words were: „I’m sorry for bothering you. If there’s anyone nearby who needs help more than I do, I can wait.“

The Czechs say that what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. Difficult trials make a strong character tougher, and break the weak. The Japanese take this for granted, but it’s worth mentioning. The Japanese do not steal or go looting. They do not assault or shoot people. Instead, they help each other out.

It’s not exactly proper, but we should remember similar catastrophes that have struck around the world. For example, the Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005, a catastrophe that hit a country that for many is the most civilised and advanced in the world. Remember the crowds of looters, the violence, the shoot-outs in the streets, the army which flew into afflicted areas not with the primary aim of saving people, but to shoot those who had gone wild.

My quarter-Japanese blood weeps at this human tragedy. But this Japanese quarter of me is also proud how this afflicted nation is facing up to the apocalypse. My Moravian half is scared to think how we Czechs, Moravians, Silesians, Romany, the Czech nation as a whole, would cope in such an awful situation.

During the last few hundred years the Japanese have become harder and harder. Their nature has take on a completely different form to the European character. Calamities and the constant threat of earthquakes and typhoons have taught them to be independent in looking after themselves and those around them. This is something that Europeans have grown out of the habit of over the last sixty-six years.

„The main thing is to look after oneself, to control and perfect oneself;… To be independent, to be autonomous and self-sufficient, this means not asking others to give you what you can and should do for yourself.“ These are not the words of a Japanese person. They were written by Tomáš Bat’a, a Moravian. It doesn’t matter if we’re Moravian or Japanese. The important thing is what we can offer to others.

The most important message that the Japanese can give to the world is a general truth for everyday life, at times of peace and during the storm: Our value lies not in what we have, but what we give to others.

Tomio Okamura