Been out all day----any looting going on in Japan? I know yesterday

[virgogal]

a man was saying they were running out of food and the stores were all closed.

[hlthe2b]

1. You know we have a lot of Japanese nationals and other Duers based in Japan...

don't you? Do you not think this is a wee bit insensitive?

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

2. +1000!!!!

[jannyk]

3. Thanks for saying what I was thinking. nt

[Hannah Bell]

7. thank you.

[leftstreet]

9. +1

Thank you

[virgogal]

12. Insensitive? My daighter in law is Japanese and I have 2

1/2 Japanese grandaughters.

It was a legitimate question since looting usually happens after a disaster like this.

Insensitive? God !

[hlthe2b]

17. Ummhmmm... Tell that to the NOLA population...

that was targeted by the racists in this country in that way. I have no way of knowing if you are telling the truth about your family members, but I stand by my assessment. Your assumption that the Japanese would be out looting and stealing from each other, is insensitive at best. Many are in survival mode at this point, so that the use of the term "looting" ought to be used with some caution. Stealing tvs and stereos is looting. Taking a loaf of bread from the demolished shelves of a store front, arguably may not.

[virgogal]

26. I did not "assume" that there was looting,I asked if there was any.?

Big difference.


Whether you believe me or not about my family is of no consequence to me.I have many faults but I am not a liar.

[hlthe2b]

27. As Hannah Bell pointed out..

If you don't realize how atypical it would be for Japanese to be out looting, rather than sharing among themselves and trying to help each other, then you certainly don't seem to have learned anything about Japanese culture from your family member that you mention.
As I stated earlier, with DUers in Japan able to read what is being commented and speculated on at DU, and at a time when they are just trying to react to the horrendous mutltiple disasters, your speculative question on looting is at best poorly timed.

[virgogal]

34. This wouldn't be the first time I opened my mouth and put my

foot in it.

It would never occur to me that any DUers in Japan,Japanese or not, would take everything posted on the internet seriously,I certainly don't.

[blm]

18. A disaster of THIS size would have markets in civilized countries opening their doors freely

to all in need.

[Hannah Bell]

28. kr. too bad there are no civilized countries.

[Hannah Bell]

23. you don't seem to know much about japan for having a japanese d-i-l .

[virgogal]

55. My DIL is Sansei,that's why.

[eShirl]

42. If I had family in Japan right now, looting would not be at the top of the list of my concerns for

them.

[WinkyDink]

43. But what would be your POINT in asking, whatever the answer?

[blm]

15. considering the source I'm not surprised....too many hits straight out of right field

.

[ZombieHorde]

16. Seems like a sincere question to me, and I can be a little sensitive about Japanese-phobia. nt

[Kuroneko]

47. No I don't find it insensitive.

I think that it's a good question.
And to answer it, no there is no looting.

Because people don't need to loot and the soldiers are there to help and not to shoot.

[Doremus]

4. As a matter of fact, I was watching CNN a few hours ago- they specifically said there was no looting

Why do you ask?

[virgogal]

14. Curiosity----that's why I often ask questions.

[here_is_to_hope]

19. Sorry you are getting flack, seems a simple

question, as in there are gas and food shortages. I guess the Japanese don't loot?
Hmmmph, right.

[Hannah Bell]

5. - 10,00000.

[bbinacan]

8. +1,000,000 n/t

[bbinacan]

6. I was wondering the same thing.

So far, I've heard no reports of looting.

[SoCalDem]

10. Japanese culture is a sharing culture... a courteous, law-abiding culture.

Not ALL areas are devastated. People will hang on for a while and wait for aid to come to them. In the meantime they will share what they have.

Also, in areas that are devastated, the stores are gone too..

[virgogal]

22. Thanks for the civil answer . I have a Japanese family member so

am familiar with the culture but I also know that in an awful situation such as the one going on in parts of Japan people often take desperate measures.

Lots of sarcasm directed to my question so thanks again.

[WinkyDink]

45. Are you saying "desperate measures" equates to "looting" in your mind?

I'm sorry, but your question is simply a bizarre tangent considering the immense TRAGEDY.

[Doremus]

25. It's just as inaccurate to stereotype in a positive light as a negative one.

I know of at least one law the Japanese break every year which nullifies your broadbrush statement.

However, none of this has anything to do with their current plight and the whole discussion is in poor taste, imo.

[SoCalDem]

29. .. I assume you are referencing whaling.

I abhor that as well.. I was referencing their culture..not the occupation of "some" invividuals.. appale-oranges----> your comment
no hard feelings

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[robdogbucky]

35. Marmar

I should have included the sarcasm icon.

I was calling out ms virgogal, like the rest of the posters were. Like to expect that of the Japanese one would have to have the reference point of someone that was familiar with that same behavior in American cities.

Sorry, those were the first instances of such behavior that came to mind.

I apologize if either of you live in any of those communities, but virgogal you really displayed ignorance of the Japanese people and culture.

I was doing some timeline research the other day in the years of 1966 and 1967. One thing that struck me was the common occurrence in those years of race riots in not just major US cities, like the locations I mentioned, but also in places that are not what you would presume to be locations of riots/looting. Waukegan, Ill., Lansing, MI, Omaha, NE, etc.

1966 Jul 5, National Guard was mobilized in Omaha after a 3rd night of rioting.

1966 Jul 12, There were race riots in Chicago.

1966 Jul 19, Gov. James Rhodes declared a state of emergency in Cleveland due to a race riot.

1966 Aug 7, There was a race riot in Lansing, Michigan.

1966 Aug 27, There was a race riot in Waukegan, Illinois.

http://timelines.ws/20thcent/1966.HTML


1967 Jun 2, Race riots took place in the Roxbury section of Boston.

1967 Jun 11, There was a race riot in Tampa Florida and the National Guard was mobilized.

1967 Jun 27, There was a race riot in Buffalo, NY, and 200 were arrested.

1967 Jun 28, Fourteen people were shot in race riots in Buffalo, New York.

1967 Jul 12, Blacks in Newark rioted. 26 were killed, 1500 injured and over 1000 arrested.

1967 Jul 13, Race-related rioting broke out in Newark, N.J.; by the time the violence ended four days later, 27 people had been killed.

1967 Jul 17, Race riots took place in Cairo, Illinois.

1967 Jul 19, Race riots took place in Durham, NC.

1967 Jul 20, Race riots took place in Memphis, Tenn.

1967 Jul 23-30, Racial riots in the city of Detroit left 40 dead, 2,000 injured and 5,000 homeless in the worst riot of the summer.

1967 Jul 24, Race riots took place in Cambridge, Maryland.

1967 Jul 24, Race riots in Detroit forced the postponement of a Tigers-Orioles baseball game.

1967 Jul 30, There was a race riot in Milwaukee and 4 people were killed.

http://timelines.ws/20thcent/1967.HTML


It is amazing how quickly we all forget our history. Hysteria and misunderstanding aside, Japan is the last place I would think such activity would occur. If you have ever been to Japan, you would notice right away that there is somewhat a lack of diversity, and that most folks conform and there is great consensus on most things. Seeing that there are lots of Japanese in a finite space and like living on a small island, the only way to really survive is to cooperate and respect your fellow countrymen. Not to mention that their culture is based on a code of honor. Recall what Michael Moore pointed out in Bowling for Columbine just about Canada, that neighbor just to our north and the fact that they can leave their doors unlocked and that it would never happen down here. It does matter where you are in these matters.

This is us. And I can easily see someone from one of any of the communities listed having the expectation from their own direct personal experience that looting could occur in a situation of civil confusion and/or chaos.

BTW, I survived the Loma Prieta earthquake on a bus on the Bay Bridge and then just two years later almost to the day, the Oakland Hills fire here in Cal stopped 6 blocks from where I lived. There was constant looting of both damaged locations and it was a pain in the ass for the cops. Not necessarily by Californians if you can believe it. They told me later when I was filing a police report after having my vehicle broken into on the street at a park, that they found people had driven from Idaho and Texas to loot homes in the SF Marina and the Oakland Hills left behind by those tragedies. Needless to say they made a lot of arrests and laid in wait in the dark in the hills for them for weeks after the fire. You don't have to be living in a ghetto to get looted though.


Just my dos centavos

robdogbucky

[marmar]

37. Sorry about that......I should have picked up the sarcasm.

nt

[robdogbucky]

40. That's cool, my bad

I should have inserted the icon, but I have been in crisis overload here for the last month, first on the Egyptian revolution, then the Wisconsin protests, and I'm from Madison and have lots of emotion invested in that, and then now the massive disaster in Japan.

I am doing research for a story that requires I spend lots of time in the past and the jumping forward into the present of all these events after being immersed for hours in the past has my head spinning around. Just the following things brought back memories that I lived through.



1966 Jan 4, Ronald Reagan announced his candidacy for California Governor.

1966 Jan 9, Ronald Reagan appeared on Meet the Press and was asked why he had not disavowed the John Birch Society. Reagan said a committee had looked into the group and found “nothing of a subversive nature.” In 1960 an informer reported to the FBI that Reagan was a Beverly Hills chapter member.

1966 Jul 1, The US Medicare federal insurance program went into effect.

1966 Jul 4, President Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act, which went into effect the following year.

1966 Oct, LSD was made illegal.

1966 Nov 8, Ronald Reagan defeated Pat Brown by over a million votes to become governor of California.



I have plenty of reasons to be depressed but just look at how tumultuous our past has been and it is really no wonder that life continues to challenge us on a daily basis. Be strong.

Time for me to get away from my computer for a while.


Hands off my Social Security!
Hands off Latin America!


rdb

[Horse with no Name]

13. At a RW infested cesspool site

I just saw a similar post stating that the Japanese weren't looting, why did the people in New Orleans?

I had the same distaste for that post.

[ZombieHorde]

24. Why do you have distaste for virgogal's question?

Do you suspect virgogal's question is racially motivated?

[leftstreet]

31. It's just a strange question

There probably aren't many customer service reps on duty in Japan today to run the cash registers, process credit and debit cards, etc.

How people are acquiring food and water is irrelevant

The better question might be "how do you send help to the Japanese people?"

[PeaceNikki]

20. Who cares? If people need food/water/first aid, I hope they get it however they can.

[JVS]

21. As a member of the Looting Aficionado FB group, I can tell you that we've heard no reports...

of people getting their mitts on that sweet, sweet loot.

[pokerfan]

33. Looting as opposed to finding?

[DireStrike]

30. It's a legitimate question. I can't see how it could possibly be taken as insensitive.

It's really a simple question about conditions on the ground.

[WinkyDink]

44. It's a weird concern to raise "after being out all day." How about the REACTORS??

[DireStrike]

46. Ah, you mean which knowledge is more dire?

Yes, I guess that is a bit odd. I would worry about a host of things before whether looting is occurring.

Although, being a teeny bit familiar with Japanese culture, I would assume looting would be replaced by sharing, for the most part. But ultimately it is an objective question, and I shouldn't presume to know the answer based on my outside views of another culture.

[Mimosa]

50. AMEN.

I suspect these people concerned about 'looting' will lay low now that they've outted themselves with OPs which wouldn't even occur to a caring intelligent person.

[Generic Other]

32. I don't consider it looting to take food and water

from unoccupied stores in an emergency especially if it is to be thrown away during clean-up anyway.

[chillspike]

36. Neither do I

and I wouldn't expect looting to go down in Japan anyway, given their low crime rate as it is.

[suffragette]

41. I feel the same way

[emilyg]

38. It will not happen in Japan.

[Mimosa]

39. After Katrina no fresh water, no cashiers: getting beer, food & paper products isn't looting

Stranded people have to survive. They get what they can.

Can't imagine people going after TVs when the electricity was out for two weeks (in most areas) around New Orleans after Katrina.

[Mimosa]

48. Well it's apparent who's who with these freeper type dogwhistles about looting

Maybe japanese reporters have no reason to stir up antipathy towards VICTIMS>

[KittyWampus]

49. DU's version of counting coup > pointing out who you believe is a racist/prude/homphobe.

[Mimosa]

51. BULL. I'm one of the more 'conservative' D.U. longtimers.

I know mendacity when I smell it.

I also know real concern and compassion which is ALL the Japanese need now.

[Control-Z]

52. Well, you might as well

hear my opinion - since you've heard everyone else's.

I was floored when I read your post, actually. It came off to me like a guy anxious about the football game he was missing to shop with his wife. "I've been out all day----What's the score?" Like it was entertainment to you. Like you were worried you had missed out on some "good looting".

Who does that? After a disaster like this, who spends the day with looting on his mind? An update on the crippled nuclear reactors, or word of rescues, or graphic tsunami footage even, would be understandable. But looting? That was the first thing on your mind after being out all day? I'm not trying to be mean but I just don't get it. I really don't.

[renate]

53. A friend in Japan who was able to get out an e-mail specifically said NOT

She said she was really proud of how people were reacting.

I can understand how people in this situation, as in New Orleans, would "loot" for necessities like food, water, bedding, diapers, etc--please note that I put "loot" in quotations because it's really "survive" (and in the case of New Orleans, it's because nobody else was doing a helluva job providing those necessities)--but I'm impressed too.

[Canuckistanian]

54. I object to all these "looting" accusations

This is an emergency, not street thugs stealing someone's livelihood. ANY store owner can write off lost goods after an emergency.
Why would a store owner begrudge starving or needy people supplies? This is an American conservative meme, I've never heard such an argument against people just trying to SURVIVE after an overwhelming disaster.

Besides, I wouldn't want to buy foodstuffs that had been through a tsunami. I'd be worried about contamination from sewage and chemicals.

[Mimosa]

56. Canuckistan gets it: goods in such a catastrophe are 'writeoffs'.

So what is the point of these goofy irrelevant posts during a worls level catastrophe?