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Yasuo Takamatsu lost his wife, Yuko, in the tsunami that struck Japan in 2011, yet 11 years later, he continues to search for her by scuba diving every week.After his wife went missing in Onagawa, one of the worst-affected areas of the nation, Mr. Takamatsu took up scuba diving after a last effort to locate her remains.
The deadly Thoku tsunami struck Japan’s east coast on March 11, 2011, causing a quarter of a million people to lose their homes and killing close to 20,000.As long as his body is still moving, the devoted husband promised to continue looking on land and at sea.
More than 2,500 victims of the tsunami are still listed as missing.
Months after the catastrophe, Mr. Takamatsu found his wife’s phone in the parking lot of the bank where she worked, but he hasn’t found anything else.It was “depressing,” he said, to think about surviving without seeking his wife.
The 56-year-old began learning to dive in September 2013 after spending 2.5 years looking on land.When the tsunami struck the mainland, Mrs. Takamatsu was at work.
When the original earthquake wreckage was being cleaned up, Yoku Takamatsu was in the middle of it.Yuko asked her husband, “Are you okay?” in her final text to him. I wish to return home.
Her phone was found some months later with the statement, “The tsunami is devastating,” still in it.
Previously, Mr. Takamatsu, a bus driver, claimed that he did not naturally enjoy diving, but that worrying about his wife had “forced” him into the ocean.”I really want to find her, but I also feel like she might never be found because the water is so big. But I have to keep looking.”
Mr. Takamatsu enters the chilly ocean with the help of diving instructor Masayoshi Takahashi while hoisting a scuba diving tank onto his back and wearing a dry rubber suit.
It is crucial to help Mr. Takamatsu in finding his wife, according to Mr. Takahashi, who guides volunteer dives to hunt for missing tsunami victims.
Mr. Takamatsu, who had been with his mother-in-law at the time in a hospital in the neighboring town, was not permitted to go back to the devastated town, which was by this time a seething, bobbing mass of buildings, fishing boats, and cars.
Onagawa’s hospital is located on a hilltop and was designated as an evacuation center when the barricades were removed the following day. Hundreds of people fled there shortly after the significant earthquake.
His wife was among the bank employees who had been swept away, he discovered there.My knees started to give way. I had no sensation whatsoever, he claimed.The catastrophe, which had a magnitude of 9.1, was the fourth most devastating in human history and the deadliest to ever affect Japan.
What do you think about Mr. Takamatsu? Do you know anyone who has been lost in a natural disaster? Please let us know, and don’t forget to spread the news so that we can hear from more people.
