JAPAN – AT 10:07 A.M. ET:  The Japanese prime minister laid it on the line to his people today.  From AP:

TOKYO -- Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan is appealing to the Japanese to unite in overcoming what he says is the nation's worst crisis since World War II.

Kan said Sunday in a television address that the nation's future will be decided by the choices made by each Japanese and urged all to join in their determination to rebuild the nation following a massive earthquake and tsunami.

You mean personal responsibility counts?  Can a prime minister still say that?

Estimates of the death toll from the disaster rose to more than 10,000 in one state alone, as millions of survivors remained without drinking water, electricity and proper food along the pulverized northeastern coast.

The force of the quake and tsunami is still being measured, but was enormous:

(Space.com) The massive earthquake that struck northeast Japan Friday (March 11) has shortened the length Earth's day by a fraction and shifted how the planet's mass is distributed.

A new analysis of the 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan has found that the intense temblor has accelerated Earth's spin, shortening the length of the 24-hour day by 1.8 microseconds, according to geophysicist Richard Gross at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Watch.  The public-service unions in Wisconsin will ask for a schedule adjustment.

What is getting the most attention in the American press is the crisis involving possible meltdowns at several nuclear reactors.

KORIYAMA, Japan -- Japan's nuclear crisis intensified Sunday as authorities raced to combat the threat of multiple reactor meltdowns and more than 170,000 people evacuated the quake- and tsunami-savaged northeastern coast where fears spread over possible radioactive contamination.

Nuclear plant operators were frantically trying to keep temperatures down in a series of nuclear reactors -- including one where officials feared a partial meltdown could be happening Sunday -- to prevent the disaster from growing worse.

At this hour we really don't know the extent of the damage to the plants, or the amount of radiation released.  News reports say that the Japanese are going all-out to prevent damage to human health.  One of the plants in danger is 40 years old, and past its due date for being decommissioned. 

The usual suspects, led by The New York Times and Washington Post, are already running dark pieces about the danger of nuclear power and the implications of the Japan quake for the nuclear-power industry.  We caution that it is much, much too early to be making these judgments.  If Japan can make it through this crisis with little significant radiation release, it could easily turn out to be a testament to nuclear power.  Stand by.

March 13,  2011