ONAGAWA, Miyagi Prefecture--Family members of victims killed in the tsunami that followed the powerful quake in 2011 poignantly called out their names when they rode out to sea to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the disaster on March 11.
“Please come back to us,” shouted Masaaki Narita and his wife, Hiromi, of Ishinomaki in the prefecture, while tossing flowers and balloons into the sea, talking to their daughter, Emi, whose remains they believe are in Onagawa Bay. Hiromi said Emi liked balloons.
Emi, 26, was an employee at a local bank and went missing after the tsunami engulfed her and her colleagues, who sought refuge on the rooftop of the bank building on March 11, 2011.
Masaaki, who is a certified diver, searches the bay almost weekly for signs of her whereabouts.
“There are many wrecked vehicles in the sea,” he said. “I am determined to find something left of her.”
Among other grieving relatives on the boat during the commemorative event was Hiromi Tamura, from Osaki in the prefecture. Her son, Kenta, was a 25-year-old employee of the same bank. His body was found in the sea off Onagawa.