Yasuo Takamatsu has dived nearly 500 times in 8 years, only to find his dead wife who was missing due to the tsunami. (Picture / Retrieved from Twitter)
The 311 earthquake 11 years ago brought unprecedented disaster to Japan. This earthquake, which occurred at 14:46:23 JST, is still shaking in the hearts of many victims, and regarding 2,500 people are still missing. Kangxiong’s deceased wife Yuko is one of them. The 65-year-old has conducted nearly 500 diving searches in the past 8 years in order to retrieve his wife’s remains. Recently, he also dived into the sea once more, trying to help his deceased wife fulfill her last wish of “I want to go home”.
At 2:55 pm on March 11 this year, Yasuo Takamatsu blew soap bubbles in front of the monument in Miyagi Prefecture to remember his wife who was lost due to the tsunami at this time. Despite the efforts and hopes of hundreds of times over the past eight years, they are like soap bubbles. The bubble burst, but he still told the “Asahi Shimbun”: “I haven’t forgotten Yuko, I’m still looking for her. Although the scenery of the city has changed, the scene in the sea has not changed much.” And said with some sense: “Although it’s been 11 years, I don’t feel like it’s been that long. I’ll keep looking until I find her.”
The time goes back to 2:55 pm 11 years ago, when Yasuo Takamatsu, who was in the highlands and successfully escaped the tsunami, received a text message from his wife, which Yuko finally successfully sent to him, and asked anxiously: ” Are you okay? I want to go home.” Then there was no news, and it was finally confirmed that he was killed. The opportunity that triggered Yasuo Takamatsu to dive to find his wife was when he retrieved Yuko’s mobile phone from the rescue team in 2013. The last text messages that failed to send and in the true sense said: “The tsunami is so scary”, “It’s approaching to my feet.” .” Just a few words to tell the helplessness and fear before his death, also let Takamatsu Yasuo fall into heartache once more.
Yasuo Takamatsu, who decided to help his wife fulfill her last wish to go home, passed the national examination to obtain a professional diver’s license at the age of 500. Since then, he has been diving for his wife once a month or even once a week, and every time he has to dive to 40 kilometers. In the deep, impenetrable sea, “when I’m immersed in the sea, it’s like I’m going to see her.” And this year, as in the past, he told every reporter who interviewed him: “I’ll keep searching, until you can’t move.”
In addition to 2,500 people whose whereregardings are still unknown, there are still 40,000 people in Japan who are still in “311 asylum status” and cannot return to their hometowns. The Cabinet Office of Japan also quoted the conclusions of an expert seminar in December last year, saying that if “the Japan Trench and the An earthquake with a scale of 9 in the Qiandao Trench area will cause 199,000 deaths and a disaster ten times the scale of casualties. Therefore, while all walks of life cherish the memory of the deceased and pay tribute to the affected households, don’t forget to guard once morest any possible disasters.