Letter to the BBC

Are you in Japan? Are you taking part in the recovery efforts?
Send us your comments and experiences というページがあったので、以下のとおりコメントというより抗議文を送りました。

I am professor of history at the University of Tokyo, staying calm, business as usual.
I cannot help being angry at the inaccurate and irresponsible article written by Chris Hogg of BBC News, Tokyo, on 20 March 2011 GMT.
I quote:
'Four days after the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, a local newspaper in Sendai - the city closest to the quake's epicentre - reported there had been 40 incidents of theft and looting since the disaster'.

Q1. Is Sendai the closest city to the epicentre?
- No. Ishinomaki and Kesennuma are.
Sendai is 100 kilometres distant from the epicentre.

Q2. What is the name of the local newspaper which Chris Hogg says 'reported 40 incidents of theft and looting', and when?
Were the incidents in London or in New York?
He does not specify where.

What is amazing about the disaster and disruption in eastern Japan now is the sensationalism and ungrounded reports of either inexperienced or ill-informed members of the press, who are unable to speak and read the Japanese language.

Will BBC please tell the world that the Japanese are one of the best-literate nations, perhaps the most civilized, in the world today?
They are also polite and commercial, and their cultured life at the time of the present 'national crisis' may be worth investigating. You live and learn.