My wife and I were privileged to visit the Hawaiian islands for the first time recently—in fact, just a week or so before the Japan catastrophies. The islands give abundant evidence of volcanic eruptions and lands formed at least to a degree by lava flows (yes, on one calm day a tour-guide warned of the danger of tsunamis!).

But one surely comes away from such a trip with great admiration for the beauty of creation, on the one hand, and with considerable respect for the destruction that “nature” can cause, on the other.The Japan Disaster — “What is Man…?”