Bide One’s Time: Japanese Earthquake Ghosts, 2011

Some interesting mail has come to me for my “Bide One’s Time” column related to the horrible disaster that overtook Japan during the month of March, 2011. Let me comment and share some thoughts with you on this tragedy.

Yes, I believe there will certainly be a deluge of ghosts following the earthquakes and the aftermath. Thousands were killed, either as a direct result of the earthquakes or by drowning. The majority of these victims had no chance to reach safety. Most of them died in shock, surprise, and so quickly they did not immediately know they were dead. They know they are dead now, most of them. Yet, like some drowning victims, some spirits will linger as ghosts caught between two worlds. Their appearances will become apparent in time.

It is oftentimes not the passing over that causes ghosts to linger, but the actual manner in which the individual or group of individuals passed over. In a way, it is an open-ended existential ending leading to a complicated (in some instances) new beginning.

Yes, there will be an abundance of ghosts following this disaster in Japan. I see no way around it because so many died frightened, unaware of what was happening in the last moments of their life, and not ready to give up the meaningful lives they were living, or give up those they loved.