KESENNUMA, Miyagi Prefecture--A boat that went missing five years ago after a massive tsunami swept it away has returned to its home here, brightening the faces of Miyagi prefectural officials.
The 1.1-ton Kaisho of Miyagi Prefecture’s Kesennuma Fisheries Experiment Station was carried off by the tsunami spawned by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.
It was not seen again until May 12, when a fisherman spotted an overturned boat drifting at sea some 6 kilometers off Miyakojima island in Okinawa Prefecture. That is about 2,200 km away as the crow flies.
“I had given up on the Kaisho, which I thought would never be found,” said Akio Oshino, a 60-year-old employee of the station who worked aboard the Kaisho before the March 11, 2011, disaster. “But I still had the deepest sense of attachment to it.”
Although the Kaisho’s name sign had disappeared, the Japan Coast Guard station in Miyakojima identified the vessel by its registration number, which was still faintly intact.
When the towering tsunami hit northeastern Japan, the Kaisho was moored with the Kaitaku, another research vessel, at Hajikami fishing port. The Kaitaku was found inside the port, but the Kaisho went missing and remained unaccounted for until it was discovered in May.
Upon its return to its home port on June 8, the 6-meter-long, 2-meter-wide Kaisho was unloaded from a truck behind a newly erected building of the experiment station. Prefectural employees then carefully removed tarps covering the boat. Although the wheelhouse and the outboard motor had been lost, no other major damage to the vessel was detected, although the Kaisho was covered in green growth that appeared to be seaweed.
Scientists say it is possible that the Kaisho may have traveled as far as Hawaii on the back of the Kuroshio and other ocean currents before drifting back to Japan. The Miyagi prefectural government has asked University of Hawaii scientists to analyze the Kaisho’s drifting routes.
The experiment station has decided to put the Kaisho on public display outdoors for the time being as a reminder of the tsunami disaster.
“The vessel’s return really moved me,” Oshino said. “I am grateful to the person who discovered it.”