In Onagawa, a town in Miyagi Prefecture, there remains to this day what could only be described as a chronicle of enduring love and unyielding determination. Yasuo Takamatsu is a 65-year-old bus driver who has dedicated his life to finding his missing wife, Yuko, since she disappeared after the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami disaster back in 2011. The disaster was one among the powerful hits nature caused on Japan, killing about 20,000 people, with more than 2,500 still unaccounted for.
On March 11, 2011, Japan’s eastern coast was hit by a powerful 9.0 magnitude earthquake, triggering a towering tsunami. The surge reached as high as approximately 40 meters—or even more at some places; it moved miles inland and swallowed whole towns, leaving behind trails of unimaginable destruction. Yuko Takamatsu was among many who vanished that day. She was working in a bank at Onagawa when the tsunami arrived. Her last message to Yasuo, the very simple and sad one, was, “Are you okay? I want to go home.”
Japanese man goes diving every week searching for his missing wife after 2011 Tsunami PIC.TWITTER.COM/L0DIDXUW7I
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For Yasuo Takamatsu, the loss of his wife was merely the beginning. He would continue his search for her in a painful and enduring way. First, he joined the government-organized coastal area search parties and picked through debris to see if anything from Yuko had turned up. But because these searching parties gradually faded away, Takamatsu understood that if he enlisted help in finding his wife, he must take his search to sea.
In 2013, with unfinished business nipping at his soul, Takamatsu learned to dive. He got licensed and began diving every week—usually Sundays—in the cold, often clouded waters offshore of Onagawa. So far, he has found nothing. He has never given up. Takamatsu’s journey to the bottom of the ocean is arduous and full of physical challenges, while at the same time, it is an emotional strain. Yet he presses on, driven by a conviction that somewhere deep beneath the waves, Yuko may be waiting for him.
Takamatsu’s story is much more than a personal quest; it serves as an enduring, powerful symbol of resilience and human will amidst the ruins caused by the 2011 tsunami in Japanese society. His dedication speaks to hundreds of other families who are still out there searching for their missing loved ones, trying to find ways to go on with unhealed pain and questions related to the disaster.
It is not only the Japanese media that has recorded Takamatsu’s undaunted commitment, but international media also, testifying to his inspirational disposition. His tale of love and perseverance stands as a sobering caution of a thousands-of-lives changed by the tsunami. As he searches on and on, he reminds the world, that does move on from tragedy, of those that were lost.
