MORIOKA--When Joichiro Suzuki happened upon a basketball along the seashore in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, he knew that it had a story to tell and vowed to find its owner.
MORIOKA--When Joichiro Suzuki happened upon a basketball along the seashore in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, he knew that it had a story to tell and vowed to find its owner.
The surface of the ball was filled with writing, including "Thanks for coaching basketball" and "I will keep working hard always remembering what you have taught us."
"This must be an important thing. I have to return this to the owner," Suzuki thought, thinking it must belong to a basketball club teacher.
Suzuki, a 44-year-old company employee from Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward, was visiting his parents in the city's Karakuwa district on April 29.
Back home, he entered some key words he had managed to read in an Internet search engine, although the writing was faded: "Takata Senior High School," "Onodera" and "Mori." One click later, he was reading an article in the evening edition of the Asahi Shimbun's March 18 issue, about a woman missing in the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake.
The article said that Motoko, 29, the wife of Hiroshi Onodera and adviser of the Takata Senior High School's swimming club in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, ran to her car to "look for swimming club members" practicing at an indoor pool in a public facility near the shore after the earthquake struck.
"Soon after she drove off, a powerful tsunami surged over the embankment, washing away the public facility and other buildings." Motoko's maiden name was Mori.
The article quoted her husband as saying, "She always left herself behind."
The signed basketball was originally a "surprise" present from Takata high school basketball club members to Hiroshi, the club's adviser, who was to be transferred to another school after marrying Motoko in March last year.
Hiroshi, 43, said he had kept the ball in a closet on the second floor of his house before the building was swept away.
I handed the ball to Hiroshi on behalf of Suzuki on May 1. He could not believe his eyes.
Holding the basketball that contained messages written by 14 club members, he said, "I can see them in my mind's eye." Suzuki added it was his only belonging he had recovered after the earthquake.
"This ball has been on my mind. It is a treasure," Hiroshi said, nearly in tears. "I am glad. I have not imagined seeing this ball again."
He said he will continue to teach, thinking of Motoko's love for her students.