Americans should feel no reservations about helping Japan. What has unfolded in past days — an 8.9 earthquake now upgraded to 9.0, a deadly tsunami and a full-blown radioactive crisis — lays low a people who are remarkable for their calm and self-sacrifice, even in the face of great disaster.

Every report we have seen reflects on the unity and orderliness of the Japanese as they go about rebuilding their lives (if that’s even possible in a lifetime). Not one report has emerged of looting. No fights have broken out as people wait hours in line for gasoline. No one blames the government for hardship — at least, not yet.

Contrast all this with the street mobs that looted and preyed on their own in Haiti after its earthquake last year — evidence not only of poverty but a tired succession of corrupt regimes. We’re not at all surprised by accounts of relief supplies stored in Haitian warehouses, unavailable to the needy till some politician’s palm got greased.

Nor do we Americans always come off favorably when compared to the Japanese, if experiences after Hurricane Katrina are any indication. Based on what we saw in New Orleans, we could take some lessons from the Japanese in terms of politeness, sense of community and old-fashioned Greek-Roman stoicism.

Anecdotes emerging from Japan show not only the coolheaded demeanor of the people but great sacrifice. Japanese who found themselves better off shared their food and water with others, even as all worried about the future.

No one knows what that future holds, but Japan — our strongest ally in the region — will be years digging out. Damage estimates already surpass a trillion dollars. Some areas of northeastern Japan are buried in 10 to 15 feet of debris. Search-and-rescue teams are only beginning to haul out the dead.

The devastation offers other lessons: the sobering realization that Earth and its elements are capable, even in the 21st century, of forcing us to our knees. We routinely forget this. We Americans are especially contemptuous of the environment. But those who underestimate Mother Earth’s outbursts and how faraway global events can resonate here in Central Texas have only to consider that the earthquake that struck Japan so violently registered on seismograph machines in our region, including one on duty at Lake Whitney.

If you can help in the ongoing recovery efforts, please do so. We urge you to donate to reputable nonprofit groups, long established and proven in their devotion to charity. These include the American Red Cross, Baptist World Alliance, International Medical Corps, AmeriCares, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and Salvation Army World Service Office. Heartfelt prayers will also help.

* * *

How to help

American Red Cross

P.O. Box 37243

Washington, D.C. 20013

The Salvation Army World Service Office

International Relief Fund

P.O. Box 630728

Baltimore, Md. 21263-0728

International Medical Corps

1919 Santa Monica Blvd.

Suite 400

Santa Monica, Calif. 90404

Doctors Without Borders USA

P.O. Box 5030

Hagerstown, Md. 21741

Habitat for Humanity International

270 Peachtree St. NW

Suite 1300

Atlanta, Ga. 30303-1263

Baptist World Alliance

405 N. Washington St.

Falls Church, Va. 22046

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee

132 E. 43rd St.

PO. Box 530

New York, N.Y. 10017