For a people who cele-brate nature and beauty in all its forms — the cherry blossoms, bonsai, ikebana and the haiku — the people of Japan have been dealt a crippling blow by those very same forces that they revere.

These events can only be termed as acts of God (unlike the 9/11 attacks or the 26/11 Mumbai carnage) against which the Japanese have no recourse of vengeance and retribution and which have set the country back by a good 20 years, with economic losses estimated at more than $50 billion(Dh184 billion).

Yet there are no photographs going around of chest-beating, blaming God, or each other. There is no ‘every man for himself' panic. Each one is readily submitting to radiation tests, sharing whatever is available by buying just enough for one's needs, waiting patiently in queues for food, clothes or shelter and trusting in elected leaders to deliver the goods. Stories abound in the international media and the on the internet of adults and children putting into the common pool the freebies they have received; no aggression or panic, no forgetting of common courtesies.

Forget countries like India with its below-poverty-line masses and poorer nations across Africa and South America. Even in that land of plenty across the seas — the US — one frequently sees all civic and human values disappear during a calamity. Thievery and mass looting of homes and department stores become the order of the day. Cases in point are the power blackout a couple of decades ago in New York, or the more recent devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

While the Samurai of yore and the Kamikaze bombers of the Second World War are the essence of Japanese folklore, their commitment and fierce doggedness in the line of duty was the reason for this tiny island nation's victory in the 1904 Russo-Japanese war over the ‘great Russian bear'.

The two diametrically opposed traits of ruthless fighter and cultured aesthete in the Japanese persona prompted a remark from one Nippon statesman in the early 20th century which when paraphrased says: ‘While we pursued our arts and gentle ways of life we were called barbarians; now that we have learnt to kill and bomb and win wars, we are considered a civilised people'.

Forging character

Are the pacifist twin faiths of Shintoism and Zen Buddhism responsible for etching the essential Japanese character? Are these the reasons for their graceful acceptance of the blows dealt to them against which acts of reprisal are just not possible?

There is a lesson here to be learnt by Indians. Not for the Japanese the fatalistic swiping of the finger across the forehead indicating that what has happened is already written in our fate (karma).

Not for them the wailing and bemoaning at the unkindness of fortune over days and weeks of unremitting hardships. Living in a land known as the cradle of ancient religions and cultures, Indians need to look to their Far Eastern cousins for lessons in the conduct of their lives both in times of peace and stress. Observe the Japanese fortitude, lack of self-pity and reserve. Observe above all their principled behaviour and belief in sharing and compare it to the panic reaction that leads Indians to hoard precious stocks of food and fuel.

This is not to say that Indians do not help their fellow sufferers — even the poorest helped those in need during the July 2005 Mumbai floods. But that cultural ethos is not a norm today; venality and selfishness have parked themselves in the Indian psyche.

Leaders who ought to be leading by example instead revel in these negative traits. Japan may not be as populous as India but its population density is among the highest in the world, yet the consideration and respect for each other facilitates an enviable harmony in the worst of times which is rarely to be found these days.

It is natural therefore that Japan and its people have the world's deep respect and admiration. Despite the magnitude of the losses, despite the fact that lawyers will be hovering to make a killing out of business disruptions, delayed deliveries and radiation risks, it is natural and logical to believe from their exemplary conduct thus far that the country will before long rise from the ashes of the calamity, revitalised, stronger, and learning as always from the experience. 

Vimala Madon is a freelance journalist based in Secunderabad, India.