Random Musing: The Japanese Scare Me a Little

So I listen to nothing but NPR on the radio and was listening to a reporter talk about a shelter in Nihon after all this earthquake+tsunami+Potential Nuclear Fallout deal (Dear God I feel sorry for these people, I mean a natural disaster triple threat? We may as well have hurled another one of our nukes over these and gotten the exact same effect!).

As I was reading The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya I heard something that can only be described as either efficient and reasonable or damn right creepy:

So the reporter was talking about how the people in the shelter were. The shelter was quiet, the people were patient and uncomplaining, and when someone came with food there was no riot and no mad rush. And without instruction, they simply lined up in single file to retreive the food.

This sounds beautiful and shows people being reasonable in times of adversity and seems like the approach to a perfect world. But it was also flipping creepy! I mean it seems a little... not human. I mean seems more like evidence that the people of Nihon are or trying to be a race of robots that scheme to destroy us all with the power of cute. I mean, last I checked humans are less inclined to such behavior to due selfishness and other associated self-preservation measures. I wonder if it's simply the highly conformist society the Japanese are. Would make sense. Still needs to be added to my list of things about Nihon that creep me out along with their thing for Lolis.

Note: I am neither weeaboo nor one of those Nihon haters. I like and dislike different things.

P.S. Think any of our favorite Manga writers have been negatively affected? I mean I assumed so and I guess when you read media from a small archipelago nation that just had major disasters, you have to wonder if your favorite authors are doing okay. You just have to look at the casualty numbers and wonder "Will I ever see the conclusion of One Piece?" That sounds utterly insensitive, but I doubt the first thing on people's minds when they think "Natural disaster in Nihon" is "Oh noes! Tha poor writer! His house! Her family! etc, etc, yadda, yadda". I'm probably wrong and probably write, just noting that we're all only human.