Maybe most of you are getting tired of all the talking about earthquakes. Still I would like to try to explain why people here in Japan is talking about the Tohoku earthquake.

Not only was it the biggest earthquake that have hit Japan in modern time (9.0 in magnitude). It also resulted in the biggest crises in post-second World War era in Japan. And has had about 4 times as many after-shocks over 5 in magnitude as any of the other big earthquakes that have hit Japan earlier. The image below can give some perspective on this.

Source: Japan Metrological Agency

Of course most of these after-shocks we have not felt here in Tokyo. But you can imagine the people living in the Tohoku area. First they are hit by a 9.0 earthquake, followed by a tsunami. During the same day they have another 132 earthquakes of 5.0 or higher. 32 of these are 6.0 or higher and 3 are 7.0 or higher. Anyone of these would be enough to scare many people. They had 132 of them. After they had lost homes, family, friends, pets, everything.

It is quite difficult to imagine what they have experienced. And as one guy said that visited the area, we cannot tell them to fight it out. They have already done all the fighting out that you can expect from anyone. Now we have to fight for them.