ITOMAN, Okinawa Prefecture--A small fishing boat that was adrift for three years and two months after the March 2011 tsunami is now on display in this town.
ITOMAN, Okinawa Prefecture--A small fishing boat that was adrift for three years and two months after the March 2011 tsunami is now on display in this town.
The Matsukazu Maru turned up last month in local waters here, about 2,000 kilometers away from its port of origin.
Its owner, Kazuo Matsukawa, 74, of Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, asked the city government of Itoman, located in the southern part of Okinawa’s main island, to dispose of the vessel, as he did not have the funds to transport it.
Instead, a local nonprofit group Hamasuuki, which promotes local fishing history, began exhibiting the boat as a way of memorializing the disaster caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake.
“Even in Okinawa, we should not forget the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami,” a Hamasuuki official said.
On May 30, after an invitation from the group, Matsukawa was reunited with his fishing boat in the Umi no Furusato Koen (Sea hometown park). With tears glistening, he poured Japanese sake on the vessel, saying, “I want to say ‘Thank you’ to you.”
The Matsukazu Maru was swept away from Tomarihama Fishing Port in Ishinomaki on March 11, 2011. It was found drifting offshore from Itoman on May 16.
Algae and barnacles were left attached to the vessel by the NPO so that people viewing it can get a sense of the months the boat spent adrift.
“Both Itoman and Ishinomaki are fishing towns. I felt that they are linked,” said Hamasuuki director Ken Uehara.
Matsukawa’s visit to Okinawa was organized by Jun Taguchi, 63, a former public servant now living in Chatan, also in the prefecture.
Taguchi lived in Ishinomaki during his boyhood. “I wanted to reunite Matsukawa with his fishing boat,” he said, so he shouldered part of Matsukawa’s accommodation expenses.
During his stay in Okinawa, Matsukawa took part in exchange activities with locals.
“If my fishing boat had arrived at a different place, it could have been dismantled. I am happy that my boat is exhibited by the people of Itoman. I want to come to Okinawa again,” Matsukawa said.
(This article was written by Takeshi Suzuki and Kazuo Yamagishi.)