Recognizing the professionalism, and hearts of the Japanese

This map shows how professional the Japanese media is. I was trying to locate 2 photos from Saturday's Ming Pao Daily on Japanese donation to the Wenchuan quake. I thought they are quite touching. One of them is a parliament member stopping a driver for donation, the other is a kind hearted lady (probably a housewife) holding a placard on the street asking for donation for China (she seems to feel terribly sad for the victim after watching the news).

What I found was the best map ever in any newspaper/website for the quake. from mainichi 每日新闻. showing the first quake, then the aftershocks of 6+ (red), 5-6 (green) and 4-5, with city names correctly labeled as well.

If China is ever to reach Japan in its accomplishment, economic or technological or whatever. It needs to learn from the Japanese professionalism. Many, if not most, Japanese do not see doing a job well as satisfying his boss or making more money. They just feel that they need to do things at their best. They do it for their own satisfaction and joy.

Secondly, as many Chinese have already seen in the famous picture of Japanese rescue team bowing to the victims they unearthed, they should also recognize that many Japanese people are friendly and sympathetic to Chinese people. I will simply show one small data point, a partial donation list one web site: yahoo.co.jp, which gave a link in its front page for donation to China's quake.

• 緊急支援募金
  
  募金テーマ
  中国大地震救援金
  募金先団体, 日本赤十字社, 内容
  2008年5月12日に中国で発生した地震は、甚大な被害をもたらしました。日本赤十...[続きを読む]募金人数：16,001人　募金額：17,054,928円
  緊急支援募金
  
  募金テーマ
  ミャンマー・サイクロン災害救援金
  募金先団体, 日本赤十字社, 内容
  2008年5月2日から翌3日にかけてミャンマーで発生したサイクロンは、甚大な被害...[続きを読む]募金人数：9,863人　募金額：7,224,756円

The point here is not the total (it is only number from one website), but the relative sizes. As you can see, the total amount, number of people and the amount per person for China's quake is much higher than that for Myanmar (which has more casualty). The reason, of course, has more to do with the news blockade and the misersable response of the Myanmar Junta (and the great recent improvement by the Chinese government). Nevertheless, it helps to illustrate that the Japanese people overall are perhaps more sympathetic to Chinese people than other people from smaller (less known) countries, or at least, they are our friends, not our enemy.

Let's hope that this quake will offer an opportunity for the two great people of Asia to understand each other better, and work to ensure peace in this area of the world.