Does not compute?

I've been following the BBC live updates of the Japan situation and I just can't process the disaster down there. The magnitude of it. I'm watching reporters walk around in the rubble and I wince when they come off as more enthralled than grave. And I wonder, is it a defense mechanism to not simply burst into tears and rock back and forth wailing in sympathy? Or do we just not understand because we can't understand unless it's happened to us?