The cult of the ancestors, mentioned in the article, is nothing specific to Japan. Most civilizations in antiquity had their own version of it. And progressively distant ancestors become god like figures, this is a well observed mechanism outside of the leading monotheist religions.
Wile true, how many others can claim to be the main religion of an industrialized nation after centuries of preachers from the ones holding sway over most of the globe?
Here is another excerpt from the book that this article is taken from, this one talking more about the disaster at Okawa Elementary School. Be warned, it might be difficult to read.
I read that at the time of publication. It made me both sad and angry; all of those children... because of what amounted to bureaucracy. I can't imagine what being a parent at work and too far away to react in time must have felt like. Harrowing stories.
It doesn't seem to me that the issue was bureaucracy, but the extreme scale of the event and the complete lack of preparation regarding it. And to a degree, the arrogance of teachers who should have realized they didn't know what to do given the useless manual.
It was bureaucracy that stopped them from going to hill... but thats simply because the bureaucracy was doing what it does to stop panic and chaos. In a situation where the event was prepared for, having a small group of kids yelling orders and running off is exactly what you don't want. You don't want conflicting orders running around; else (if the bureaucracy judged correctly, and went to the hill), you'll end up with a group of kids and teachers or parents not following orders and staying in the school instead.
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 25.8 ms ] threadhttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/24/the-school-ben...
It was bureaucracy that stopped them from going to hill... but thats simply because the bureaucracy was doing what it does to stop panic and chaos. In a situation where the event was prepared for, having a small group of kids yelling orders and running off is exactly what you don't want. You don't want conflicting orders running around; else (if the bureaucracy judged correctly, and went to the hill), you'll end up with a group of kids and teachers or parents not following orders and staying in the school instead.