Misaki Murakami lost all of his possessions in last year’s tsunami. But at least one of his treasures is coming back--from thousands of kilometers away.
Misaki Murakami lost all of his possessions in last year’s tsunami. But at least one of his treasures is coming back--from thousands of kilometers away.
David Baxter, a technician with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, discovered Murakami’s soccer ball on the shores of Middleton Island in the Gulf of Alaska.
“I am delighted because I have not found any of my belongings,” said Murakami, a 16-year-old high school student in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, whose home was swept away by the tsunami on March 11, 2011. “I never imagined that (the ball) would be found in Alaska.”
The soccer ball was presented by his friends and teacher when he changed elementary schools seven years ago. The boy kept it in a net hanging beside his bed.
Baxter, 51, and his wife, Yumi, 44, plan to return the ball to Murakami when they visit Japan in May at the earliest.
Baxter, who lives in Kasilof, Alaska, said he feels that it is his mission to deliver the ball to the owner partly because his wife is Japanese.
Yumi said she hopes Murakami, who has endured such hardships, will be happy to have one of his cherished items back.
Baxter found the soccer ball and a volleyball when he visited the island with a colleague to operate the FAA radar and communication facilities on March 15. He said he believed that the writing on the balls was Japanese or Korean and showed them to his wife.
Yumi immediately thought they had been carried away from northeastern Japan, which was devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.
Written on the soccer ball were such phrases as “March 2005/ From third-graders at Osabe elementary school” and “Misaki Murakami, good luck.”
Yumi searched for the owner of the soccer ball on the Internet using these phrases and found Murakami’s name.
Written on the volleyball is “Shiori,” a girl’s name, and messages such as “Good luck in junior high school.”
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which announced the discoveries of the balls on its website on April 19, has said it is searching for the owners with the Japanese Consulate-General in Seattle and other organizations.
(This article was compiled from reports by Atsushi Yamanishi and Erika Toh.)