CICM has no confreres in northern Japan. Our building of 1964 in Tokyo withstood the shock perfectly, not even a glass pane was broken, but some books flew around the room, I was told The bottom plate of Northeastern Japan rests upon the Pacific plate which glides under Japan at some 130 km off the coast along some 500 km. Japan's bottom at a certain moment cannot take it any longer and rebounces, thereby causing a massive tidal wave called tsunami. According to GMS observations the whole of Northern Japan island has moved 2.7 meter! The Philippine plate does the same from Tokyo onward toward West Japan and can cause the same havoc. A maybe bigger tsunami in Northern Japan occurred in 864 and since then there are historical records of "smaller" tsunami about every 30-40 years there.

Why have people built houses along that coast and even filled up the sea therefore? In Tyrol, Austria, it is legally forbidden to build houses in mountain valleys where snow avalanches have been recorded ... Why has it been allowed to build 13 nuclear reactors in such dangerous places? Three were not functioning because of regular check-ups, 7 show no problems and three are on the way to a meltdow, esp. nr. 2 according to a press conference 30 min. ago. Notwithstanding the opposition to nuclear energy led for years by a Kyoto Univ. prof and the local movements, the bureaucrats, technocrats and plutocrats of government and industry have ridiculized ordinary people over the years and bought their approval with lots of money. They themselves don't live there, or they live on the higher and more expensive grounds. It's the ordinary people who are once more the victims. Tokyo metropolitan area where 30 million people commute daily, tonight had to cope with greatly reduced train services and with rotating planned electricity cuts of three hours spread over 6 areas. In the meantime 450,000 people actually are sheltered in sport halls, etc. with no light, no heating and very little food ... The death toll will rise above 20.000. All in all 4,5 million people are affected in the whole area. The TV images are more spectacular than in the disaster movies ... The human stories of grief and distress are heartbreaking. A lot of solidarity is going to be required over a long period of time before some normalcy will be restored on such a wide scale.

Thanks for caring, Ludo.