I think of the death of Princess Diana - the Brits were a sobbing mess, crying in the streets (and for the camera) without hesitation or reflection. Compare with the death of Churchill - an atmosphere of somber recognition for his great deeds.

The American reaction can be discerned from Katrina - not only was there public grieving, but the media intentionally provoked hysteria by reporting unconfirmed (and later debunked) stories of mass rape, violence and looting.

Perhaps Japan is the inheritor of the Anglo-Saxon tradition. It speaks well of them - poor of us.

Let's allow that the Japanese have their own tradition that is not hysterical. I wish we had not lost ours. .

It's hardly Anglo-Saxon--it's the spirit of bushido.

A couple of my friends and I were talking this weekend about the horrific events in Japan. The one thing that all of us said without hesitation is that the Japanese are strong people - no crying or whining - they will deal with their grief, they will move forward, rebuild and show their fortitude. We all should support them with prayers, thoughts and whatever else we can give them.

Kate - my thoughts exactly.

"It can't be helped." Add sho ga nai or shikata ga nai to your Japanese vocabulary: https://trak3r.blogspot.com/2004/11/sho-ga-nai-means-it-cant-be-helped.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikata_ga_nai

Why again is the fact they don't show emotion a good thing? We are men, not machines.

For the same reason, more or less, that we wear clothes when in public and don't wear them on other occasions. It's not a question of "to show or not to show?" but of *when and where* we show that is at issue.