In a rare TV appearance, Akihito, the emperor of Japan, has expressed his worries about the disaster in his country. His worries mean that the situation is certainly worse than we think. We are still very traumatized by Chernobyl, and it appears that this catastrophe is more serious. By nature, the Japanese are not fatalistic–but when the emperor worries, the people must be worrying in silence. As the Bakuni of Congo say, “A chief in the village never sees the devil.”