In March 2011, Japan endured the strongest earthquake in its recorded history, followed by a severe tsunami. The Tohoku tsunami involved waves 40 meters\/132 feet high and over 15,500 deaths. Over 450,000 people lost their homes during the floods, and the destruction spread to infrastructure all over the country, including the meltdown of three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant that displaced even more people and their businesses.\n

The ripple effect of this disaster continues today, and with so many people and homes gone, the survivors\u2019 scars may never truly heal. Here are a few stories among thousands.\n

In March 2011, Yasuo Takamatsu lost his wife Yuko when the catastrophic tsunami hit Japan. Less than two years later, he received a high-level diving license that allows him to do underwater searches and cleanups. The authorities had failed to recover his wife\u2019s body, so he decided to do it himself.\n

The couple married in 1988 and had two children, both of which survived the tzunami. Yuko was working in a bank at the time of the disaster. Her employer had them go onto the roof for safety but the building was shorter than the massive wave. Her final message to her husband read: \u201cAre you alright? I want to go home.\u201d\n

After two years, a rescue team recovered Yuko\u2019s cell phone, which revealed the true final text, which didn\u2019t send in time: \u201cThe tsunami is huge.\u201d This reinforced how terrified his wife must\u2019ve been in her last moments, and it renewed Yasuo\u2019s motivation to fulfil her final wish and bring her home, even if it is only part of her body. He is determined to search as long as he is able to, saying he feels closest to her while he is underwater.\n

Yoshihito Sasaki, 70, lost his home to the tsunami wave. He worked as a principal in an elementary school. After ensuring his students were safe and hearing one of his son\u2019s was alive, he searched for his wife and younger son. Unfortunately, 28-year-old Jinya was a \u201chikikomori\u201d (recluse), who had been home during the disaster. He had hoped his wife, Mikiko, had survived, so he searched all of the evacuation centers. It took weeks for responders to find her body.\n

He later learned that his wife had tried to convince Jinya to leave, but he didn\u2019t want to see other people. Mikiko finally escaped to a neighbor\u2019s roof with the elder son, Yoichi, when the two got swept away. \u201cI asked my son what my wife said to him at the end,\u201d Sasaki said. The last time Yoichi saw his mother, she was holding onto debris and shouting after him. \u201cHe told me that she was screaming for him to live. She told him to survive.\u201d Yoichi drifted on wreckage for hours until he was rescued.\n

Sasaki has since studied and written about hikikomori, in addition to leading a support group for parents who were once in his position. He regrets not doing more to help Jinya\u2019s condition. \u201cI thought maybe time would solve things, but I know now that\u2019s not the case. There are things you want to forget but can\u2019t. Some memories, those key memories in your mind, are actually more vivid now.\u201d\n

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Airi Sato was a kindergartener who lost her life in the 2011 tsunami. She was in school at the time of the earthquake, and the teachers put her and four other students onto a bus that took them closer to the coast. After three days of searching, Mika Sato found her daughter. The parents were all searching together for their lost children amongst the rubble, including the charred remains of the school bus. \u201cBy the time we found them, all that was left of her was as small as a baby,\u201d said Sato. \u201cWe were so afraid the wind would blow them away.\u201d\n
The parents tried to get an explanation of what happened that day. They even filed a lawsuit against the school to get answers but they still didn\u2019t get a clear reason why the staff put the kids on a bus heading toward the coast, but the teachers claimed they didn\u2019t hear the tsunami siren. Part of the settlement included the now-closed school taking legal responsibility and promising to apologize to the families. Although Sato has received flowers, she never got a formal apology.\n
\u201cI\u2019ll be waiting for you\u201d\n
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Migaku Kumagai, 71, went missing during the tsunami. Three months later, his wife, Sachiko, began writing letters to him. She has written hundreds of them, often describing the weather, the breakfast she had made for him, and questions about his whereabouts. A few times, she writes as Migaku, giving herself encouragement: \u201cMama-chan, I won\u2019t be able to return even if you keep brooding over it\u2026 I\u2019ll be waiting for you, you can do it, you can.\u201d\n
In 2017, Sachiko finally filed her husband\u2019s death certificate before dying a year later. In one of her final letters, she seemed to have accepted her loss. \u201cGood morning Migaku-san. Not many days left in the year. Seems like we\u2019ll finish out another year without finding you \u2026 Wouldn\u2019t it be a miracle if you wander back to the Ono Bay? I\u2019ve heard miracles exist, but it doesn\u2019t seem to in this disaster.\u201d\n
Saved By Debris\n
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Yoichi from Rikuzentakata suspected a tsunami would follow the earthquake, so he immediately took his parents to a shelter before returning to check on his neighbors. When they heard the news of an oncoming tsunami, Yoichi and his wife, Tasuko, rushed to another shelter but were barred from entry because of debris. They ran to a schoolyard on higher ground where they watched the wave destroy the entire neighborhood and most of Rikuzentakata, including the shelter where his parents were.\n
Saving Himself and Others\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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