Dear God, have mercy on Japan

The Samurai warriors, a penchant for KitKat, transportation infrastructure, Tokyo’s sky-rocketing buildings, the enchanting pagodas, the Sushi, the suicide forest and, infrastructural and engineering might- Japan’s got so many positives.

After all, it also happens to be the land of the Buddha- the ‘enlightened ones’ followers having spread the faith (remember, Buddhism isn’t a religion), philosophy in the ‘land of the rising sun’ many centuries ago.

There’s so much of brightness in Shinzo Abe’s country, but none of it put together can ever match up to the collective ruin wrought by a series of natural disasters, amongst the worst of which Japan has faced a few hours back.

Forget Trump, forget Germany’s complicated foreign policies or diatribes with the USA, let go of social media and ignore your own shell for a second. Spare a thought. Please spare a thought for Japan where as many as 176 have perished to their fateful end in front of a massive onslaught wrecked by the worst of its kind floods that the Asian nation has ever witnessed.

Nothing can match the love of nature- it is said. It’s that powerful, loving and giving. Yet, nothing can forgo, evade or escape the wrath of nature, even that is true, isn’t it? And in what’s believed to be amongst the worst flooding the country has ever seen, Japan seems plunged in a wave of massive despair.

It’s believed that torrential rains have soiled Japan in such savage destruction that hundreds of thousands of people’s homes have been devastated. Interestingly, albeit sadly, a few thousand miles away, in China, nature is showing it’s hot-blooded colours to China, where a dangerous typhoon is rocking the cradle of the country.

What on God’s mighty earth is happening?

The torrential rainfall in Japan has been caused due to excessive landslides and flooding and collectively have created a furore in a country desperately taking the abated breath. This isn’t just a disaster, it ought to be said. It is the worst-possible ordeal that one can ever imagine- in all honesty.

Late last week, rains began taking centre-stage in Japan and then would gradually increase over the course of the second, ongoing week in the current month (July 2018). This would only get worse by every passing second.

Homes damaged, lives lost, people going missing- perceptibly having been washed away by the strong tidal flow of floods- and properties damaged by the sheer force of nature- this is a strange cold-blooded tragedy in Japan.

In case you thought that this is just another passing natural thunder that might wane away, think again.

So serious has been the extent of damage caused by the flooding that as many as 75000 responders or rescuers have been deployed in the worst-hit areas to carry out rescue and resuscitation action.

The south-western parts of the country are the worst affected where across 29 prefectures, 440 landslides have taken place. Try to wrap your mind around the extent of the damage that’s just rocked amongst the most powerful economies of the world and what you’ll find is simply distressing.

Within an hour of the rainfall, exacerbated by constantly rising toll of flooding, would the water-level reach the ‘chest-height’ of citizens residing in their homes and most of the houses, where not completely damaged have been ‘contaminated.’

Many have actually taken refuge in schools and government buildings, evading the massive disarray caused by the harsh, inclement weather. For the evacuees, the government is taking important, crucial measures to normalise things. And believe it or not, the scenes are so damaging that the prime minister has actually cancelled his impending, forthcoming visit to Egypt and Saudi Arabia, nations with whom Japan enjoys the strong trust and bi-lateral, economic ties.

That said, it’s not the first time that an incident of such cataclysmic nature occurred in Japan, that’s previously been shocked by a major nuclear plant leak. Who can ever forget the devastation caused by Fukushima? The damage still reverberates of that ill-fated incident. In the period before, Japan was brought to a virtual standstill all thanks to an unprecedented scale of damage caused by landslides and earthquakes.

The past decade has been wrecked by a constant scourge of nature. At the present moment, what’s most worrying is that the government is yet to take full cognizance of the entire scale of damage. One can only hope that an easy calm descends on the super-powerful Asian country. Thoughts and prayers with Japan.