English (Original)
Yasuo Takamatsu met Yuko in 1988. Yasuo was a soldier and Yuko worked at a bank in Onagawa, Japan. They quickly fell in love. Yuko was gentle, modest, and enjoyed classical music and painting. On Friday, March 11, 2011, Yasuo drove Yuko to the bank. Later that day, a powerful earthquake hit the city, followed by a tsunami warning.
Yasuo was at a hospital with his mother when the earthquake happened. The main roads to Onagawa were blocked. He was driving back on the small back roads when Yuko texted, “Are you O.K.? I want to go home.” The tsunami reached Onagawa at 3:20 p.m., destroying buildings and killing people. The next morning, soldiers arrived to search for bodies. Yasuo searched for Yuko every day from morning till evening until June when he started a new job. Then he searched on weekends, always hoping not to find Yuko’s body.
A month after the tsunami, Yuko’s pink flip phone was found in the bank’s parking lot. An unsent text from 3:25 p.m. read, “So much tsunami.” Yasuo knew she had been alive until then. Other bank employees’ bodies were found later. One was found six weeks after the tsunami, another in September 2011, but Yasuo still searched for Yuko.
By September 2013, after two and a half years of searching on land, Yasuo decided to search the sea. He contacted a dive shop to learn how to dive. The instructor, Masayoshi Takahashi, organised dives to clean tsunami rubbish. Yasuo believed Takahashi could help find Yuko. Yasuo told him, “I want to learn to dive to find my wife.” On his first dive, the water was freezing. Yasuo was scared. He could have hurt himself or got caught by a rope, but that didn’t worry him. The water wasn’t clear, and that was the real danger. Takahashi told him not to touch the bottom to avoid moving the sand.
One day, Yasuo visited Masaaki Narita, who had lost his daughter, Emi, in the tsunami. Emi worked with Yuko at the bank. The women had gone to the bank’s roof but were swept away by the massive wave. Yasuo felt sorry for Narita and offered to look for Emi too. But Narita decided to dive himself. In February 2014, Yasuo introduced Narita to Takahashi.
In January 2016, Narita prepared for a dive. His wife, Hiromi, watched because she worried about him. The ocean was dangerous, and she didn’t want to lose him too. Narita said, “If I die, throw my ashes in the sea.” He dove, and after 35 minutes, resurfaced safely. Hiromi walked to her car and drove off. It was time to deliver rice balls and deep-fried chicken.
Despite all these efforts, Yasuo continued his search for Yuko, holding on to hope.