RIKUZENTAKATA, Iwate Prefecture--At a memorial service at sea on July 24, Sachiko Kumagai tossed on the waves a letter from her young grandson to her missing husband.
“Please write me back with the strength you have regained in heaven,” the letter read.
After gazing at the sea for a while, Kumagai, 74, whispered to Migaku, who went missing in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, “Come back to me.”
Kumagai was among the relatives of victims whose bodies were never recovered and are presumed dead in the disaster. Their first offshore memorial service was organized by the city government at their request.
Forty-one people from Iwate Prefecture and elsewhere, ranging in age from 29 to 86, boarded a Japan Coast Guard patrol vessel to offer a silent prayer and flowers for their loved ones in Hirota Bay off Rikuzentakata.
Kumagai brought shochu and melon bread, which were among her husband's favorite foods, and a copy of a letter for him written by their 8-year-old grandson Ryo.
Migaku is believed to have been swallowed by the tsunami, spawned by the magnitude-9.0 quake on March 11, 2011, as he was heading to the home of a bedridden elderly person living nearby to help.
Five years and four months on, the bodies of 204 remain missing in Rikuzentakata, one of the most heavily devastated municipalities in the prefecture.
Rikuzentakata had a population of 24,000 before the tsunami struck. The death toll stands at more than 1,700, including those whose whereabouts are still unknown.