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北京大学英语新闻网/Peking University News
Wu Zhipan: Personal Experience of the
Earthquake in Japan
By Wu Zhipan
PKU NEWS 2004—10—29
http://ennews.pku.edu.cn/news.php?s=99024663
Peking University, Beijing, Oct. 27th, 2004: At about 6 p.m. on Oct. 23rd, six
university delegates from China were having a meeting at Sendai Northern
University of Japan. Suddenly, the house began to shake and the chandelier was
swaying. The Japanese professor who was giving a speech quickly stopped his
lecture and said in a low voice, ―There is an earthquake. But never mind. It‘s OK
now.‖ Because of the microphone, every one of the 100 listeners had heard him. But
the lecturer continued his topic and the Japanese who are present were calm as if
nothing had happened.
At 8 o‘clock in the evening, after all the topics of the meeting had been discussed as
planned, the host added another one, inviting an officer to inform the people present
of the earthquake just now. ―An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of six on
the Richter scale shook north Japan‘s Niigata Prefecture just now. We haven‘t known
the exact casualties yet. Some civilian houses collapsed, and highways had been
out of use. Sendai is 300 km away from Niigata, so we in Sendai had a strong feeling
of shaking.‖ These words were of mental comfort for all the listeners; there is no
trace of panic on the scene although aftershocks were felt.
Immediately after I went back to my station, I turned on the TV and found that many
channels were reporting on the latest news of this earthquake. On the screen,
members of the rescue team with their emergency lamps and torches were busy
saving people‘s lives. TV cameramen were among them too, and with the shaking
pictures, the audience could feel like being personally on the scene. The whole night,
TV programs were making live broadcast to the Niigata earthquake and its
consequences to other regions. The next morning, front pages and leading news
were all messages and pictures about the earthquake.
Walking on the street, it seemed the same as usual. Some local people told me that
most institutes here had to open on Saturday. From the expressions on their face, I
did not find anything unusual.
The informationization of Japanese society is fully adequate and transparent. After
the earthquake, all the citizens received almost the same information from TV,
newspapers and every other source. These reports were very neutral and did not
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