Seven years after his rescue from near his family's buried car following a major earthquake in Niigate Prefecture touched the world, Yuta Minagawa has grown into a treasure for his grandparents.
Seven years after his rescue from near his family's buried car following a major earthquake in Niigate Prefecture touched the world, Yuta Minagawa has grown into a treasure for his grandparents.“He is a ray of hope for us,” Toshio Minagawa said of his 10-year-old grandson, who lives with him and his wife, Miharu. “The rescue team may have saved only his life, but I think they also saved our lives.”Yuta, who was 2 years old, was miraculously pulled from near the wrecked family car 93 hours after it was buried in a landslide following the Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake on Oct. 23, 2004.His mother, a daughter of the couple, and his sister both died inside the car. They were aged 39 and 3.Yuta said he remembered that it was pitch dark in the mud, and he was later held high up in the sky by a rescue helicopter. Dramatic images of the tiny boy being carried to safety were picked up in the media around the world.On March 11, when the magnitude-9.0 Great East Japan Earthquake struck, Yuta got under his desk at elementary school and was not injured. It was his grandfather's 75th birthday.“I know the Tohoku region is in a difficult time with the tsunami and other things,” Yuta said. “I am fine, and I hope all the people will pick themselves up.”The earthquake and subsequent tsunami devastated many parts of northeastern Japan. The Chuetsu region, where Yuta lives, registered lower 5 on the Japanese intensity scale of 7.Yuta was glued to tsunami images shown on television again and again that night. He also watched news from the earthquake-hit areas for long periods.Yuta appears to be particularly conscious about life, according to the grandparents.When he was a first-grader at elementary school, Yuta caught a cicada on the backyard, stared at it for some time and set it free, saying, “This bug has its own life.”Two years ago, he picked up a young starling fallen from its nest and took it home, saying, “This chick will die if it is left as is.” When he fed whitebait to the bird, he even thought about it and said, “Even the fry like these were alive.”Yuta said he is happy being raised by his grandparents.He bought a necklace with his pocket money and presented it to Miharu on her 73rd birthday in September.“He has grown up into a really cheerful and amiable boy,” Miharu said.Yuta seldom talks about his mother and sister.Toshio said, “I’m afraid that he feels lonely when parents are invited to observe the class because other visitors are all young."Yuta said he is OK.“There’s no point saying things like that,” he said. “Take it easy.”