Not that anyone would wish for a natural disaster to occur, but were I forced to chose where it happened, I’d have to pick Japan.   Not that I dislike the Japanese – there’s just isn’t anyone on earth as equipped to deal with calamities of this magnitude as they are.   That we’re seeing so much destruction speaks less to their lack of preparation than the sheer size and strength of the 9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami.

Governments in Japan spend billions on disaster mitigation every year, the building codes are the strictest on the planet, and they have the most elaborate earthquake detection system anywhere. The readiness doesn’t stop at the institutional level – just about every Japanese citizen goes through regular disaster drills, and knows what to do in a crisis.   In addition to first responders and self-defense forces, Japan also has a volunteer disaster relief system, something akin to US Civil Defense during WWII.  There is   infrastructure in place not only to deal with disaster, but to soften it’s long-term impact afterwards – it’s unlikely that in five years Japan’s worst-hit city, Sendai,  will look as bad as a blighted, post-Katrina New Orleans does today.

If this weren’t enough, every third person in Japan must be a trained professional cameraman, judging from the amazing (and increasingly harrowing) footage that surfaces every day.  Anderson Cooper could’ve stayed home for this one – not only is there no abject poverty or outright government incompetence (yet) to inspire his usual righteous indignation, he’s simply gonna get outclassed in the news gathering department.

One can’t understate the scale of the disaster, but the fact is had it occurred anywhere but Japan, it would have been much, much worse.   The earthquake in Haiti wasn’t as strong as Japan’s – 7.0 magnitude, compared to 9.0 – yet recent estimates put the casualty rate as high as 300,000 people.  Think of what’s happening in Japan as a catastrophe done right…or as close to right as any catastrophe can be done.

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