5 Feet of Fury

‘Japan is not Haiti, and how do I know?’

Come on now! That’s racist crazy talk! The very idea that people’s behavior could somehow be determined even a little bit by the same amazing tiny cells inside their bodies that dictate how they grow and look and what diseases they get and… aw, nuts…

I was living just outside of Kobe when the monstrous jishin (earthquake) hit in January 1995 and virtually destroyed the center of a major Japanese city, killing 6,600 people covering a 20-mile swath. I was right in the middle. Down the street from where I lived, a seven-story apartment building ended up being four stories. My next door neighbor died from a collapsed roof. When the quake hit, I thought it was a bomb going off.

Here’s what didn’t happen:

  • There was no looting or breaking into food stores.
  • There was no time for trying to blame anyone.
  • There was no one cutting in the front of the line to get water.
  • There were no calls to lawyers.

Here is what did happen…

UPDATE — My husband made a new movie: