International Support for Japan

(Another snippet from my cousin Ken)

There's been a lot of bad history between Japan vs China and Korea, in the past and even recently, but Chinese and Korean media and even people on the street there seem to be full of admiration for the cool-headed, cooperative attitude of most Japanese. Korean papers have front pages with words of encouragement IN JAPANESE -- which is unheard of. Many older Koreans still hate Japan over the colonial history. Until recently, Japanese movies, TV, karaoke, concerts, etc were forbidden in South Korea (although a lot of people accessed these things). It's only with reciprocal exchanges of K-Pop and J-Pop culture that things are mellowing and even getting downright friendly.

Chinese media is saying that China may have replaced Japan as the world's number two economy but that they aren't even close in terms of the organized and civilized behavior of Japanese in this kind of horrendous situation and that they still have a lot learn from the Japanese. Just a while ago, we were butting heads and slamming ships against each other and withholding rare earth shipments. Chinese and Korean rescue teams are here helping in the relief effort.

I heard that New Zealand sent something like one-third of their disaster relief teams to Japan.