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Top court upholds damages over students' tsunami deaths

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I never mass labeled genders like that

Is that so, are you really not aware of your action ?

Anyway...sit and wait and follow orders as disaster rolls in. I hear so much about how Japan is a patriarchal society but that seems like the idea of women to me even if it was some fool men who gave the order and took it. Men taught to be men would have gotten out of there.

You just wrote than even if it was men which gave the order and took it, that is women idea to wait and follow order. Real men will not do that. You just did label a full gender.

Then you find out the one taking decision was a man, which could suit your narrative but there was some "wait and follow orders" women trying to get to the hill so let do as you said nothing :

gender be damned

Perhaps you are really not aware of it but you seriously have an issue with women as a whole and it should be good for you to start addressing it.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

This situation was the one of the sadest news stories at the time, the sheer stupidity of the evacuation location and those who followed those rules. Japan needs a wake-up lesson in breaking the rules when those rules are completely dumbass for the situation in hand.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

There is an article about the event from the Guardian called "The School Beneath the Wave". Some quotes:

"One senior teacher, Junji Endo, later recalled one brief conversation with Ishizaka, after checking for stragglers inside the school. “I asked: ‘What should we do? Should we run to the hill?’ I was told that it was impossible with the shaking.”

"His alarm was picked up by one of the students, Daisuke Konno, and his friend, Yuki Sato, who made their own appeals to their sixth-year teacher, Takashi Sasaki: “We should climb the hill, sir. If we stay here, the ground might split open and swallow us up. We’ll die if we stay here!”"

"Parent: I told Mr Takashi, “The radio says that there’s a 10-metre tsunami coming.” I said, “Run up the hill!” and pointed to the hill. I was told, “Calm down, ma’am.”

"The lower-grade girls were crying, and Miss Shirota and Miss Konno were stroking their heads and saying, “It’s fine.”"

"It was another enactment of the ancient dialogue, its lines written centuries ago, between the entreating voices of women, and the oblivious, overbearing dismissiveness of old men."

Reading the article it looks like the bad decisions were made by Takashi Sasaki and Toshiya Ishizaka, with Ishizaka being the man in charge. But those adults who knuckled under or just went along must accept responsibility for that, gender be damned. But that last line I quoted....I never mass labeled genders like that but that gets a pass since it absolves women and pins it all on men. Shameful.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Maria: "No wonder men's mental health is in such trouble, with stupid and dangerous opinions like this being allowed."

Only one person in the room bringing up mental health, my friend. While the person you quoted could have avoided using gender pronouns to appeal to your political correctness (I think "anyone taught anything" would have been a much better alternative), suggesting all men have mental health issues is usually a sign that the person making the accusations is simply engaging in deflection. Patriarchy and men are not the issue here. Horrible decision making by men and women in charge alike is what is. Also an issue is the poor communication that often occurs between these local governments, school boards, administration, and teachers when there is a disaster. It's always "It's your call" while the people told that wait to hear what they should do. No one wants to take responsibility, and that is why this court ruling is a victory. The only problem is that it's not enough.

Okay, that's not the only problem... I believe they are only upholding the sentence because it is only a couple of local governments who are the defendants. We all know that if it is a nuclear power company exec who neglected his/her duties this badly they are found completely innocent and not charged or forced to pay anything. Had the local governments been the federal government, for example, no way it would have even gotten to Appeals.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

"schools across the country... have to do their best in ensuring children's safety"

Well, duh !!!!

4 ( +4 / -0 )

I read Richard Parry's book on that, 'Ghosts of the Tsunami', and it was absolutely insane how the entire sequence of events were handled; from the terrible event itself, through the months and years that followed.

For a parent, no amount of money could bring closure to that. Perpetual trauma. But I'm glad for this outcome.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

The article does not even say who gave the order to wait there.

Anyone who has kept up with this knows all about the whos and whys. Surely this isn't the first article you have read about this? Keep yourself informed; and stop blaming others for not spoonfeeding you every single fact, every single time. You have a keyboard and an internet connection - use it.

Men taught to be men would have gotten out of there.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is why the patriarchy has been so damaging to men as well as women. The nonsense about 'real' men not doing this that and the other; the idea that only women can be parents; even making a tragedy like this into a gender-issue in order to blame women. No wonder men's mental health is in such trouble, with stupid and dangerous opinions like this being allowed.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Getting to higher ground should have been part of disaster drill training and done automatically. No waiting for “higher ups” to give orders. And, Norman Goodman, I find your comment to be incredibly offensive. Proof you are definitely not a “man taught to be a man”. I’d like to write more of what I think of you but will leave it up to the imagination of anyone reading this. It’s not pretty...

4 ( +6 / -2 )

It brings me close to tears to think of the terror these children and adults must have experienced.

What is even sadder still is that it should NEVER have happened to them, and far too many others either!

5 ( +5 / -0 )

The article does not even say who gave the order to wait there. But who pays? The taxpayers. As a taxpayer I think they deserve the money, but from exactly where is the money going to come from? Is someone being punished by that alone?

Anyway...sit and wait and follow orders as disaster rolls in. I hear so much about how Japan is a patriarchal society but that seems like the idea of women to me even if it was some fool men who gave the order and took it. Men taught to be men would have gotten out of there.

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

Agreed with all of the above. It brings me close to tears to think of the terror these children and adults must have experienced.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

In all, 74 children from Okawa Elementary School in the city of Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, drowned after being told to wait on school grounds with teachers, 10 of whom also died, instead of seeking higher ground.

"This is historic," the plaintiffs' lawyer Kazuhiro Yoshioka told AFP. "This means that the Supreme Court agrees with the high court that schools across the country... have to do their best in ensuring children's safety."

Not only for Tsunami also for other disaster, they should just cance even and have good plans to execute, unfortunately not all have that. This court decision is really good so other school have to ensure safety of their students.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The only way to get initiative is to take it. It’s never given.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

An Ishinomaki official said the city "has been making steady progress in safety measures against potential disasters since the 2011 tsunami"

Glad to see you're making 'steady progress' towards protecting against serious disasters. It's only been eight years after all.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

It's desperately sad to think about all this - about those poor children; and about the adults who died with them; about their grieving families who blame, and upon whom blame may have fallen; and about those responsible who survived. There is no good result, though this money will at least support the families as they grow old without their children there to support them.

The Milgram experiment taught us so much but we continue to forget its lessons.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

I am happy for the families that they won their fight for justice. This is a quite rare case of justice prevailing in the face of government opposition. Apart from WW2 fanaticism there has been no better example of the high cost Japanese individuals have paid for mental regimentation and blind obedience. Many Koreans, too, suffer under the same dangerous cultural conditioning as the unnecessary loss of life in the horrific Sewol Ferry showed.

11 ( +11 / -0 )

Good! Those teachers were a part of the problem with the system here, and the government should pay for their needless deaths!

When you are trained to not think for yourself, and to wait for "orders" from above, and not do anything in the face of the unexpected, you had better be prepared to pay for it when crap goes wrong!

18 ( +18 / -0 )

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