I have been watching this nonstop since it occurred, I have many friends in the Pacific. Thoughts and best wishes go out to the Japanese.
By comparison though, the Japanese people and government seem to have responded much better than the Indonesian tsunami, which was also heavily videoed; almost none of the videos or photos show people in the water; there were several videos of cars and trucks directly in the path of the tsunami, with unknown results. While many homes were smashed by the water, most concrete structures have survived, and none, I think, collapsed despite the largest earthquake happening to Japan in its recorded history.