Yasuo Takamatsu was 67 when the story found him preparing for yet another dive in the cold waters of Onagawa, Japan. He had been doing the same thing since 2013, hundreds of times, searching for something science had already told him he would probably never find. The body of his wife Yuko, 47, swept away by the tsunami of March 11, 2011.
The last message Yasuo received from her said: “Are you okay? I want to go home”. A month later, someone found her pink phone in a nearby parking lot. Inside was an unsent message, written at 3:25 in the afternoon: “So much tsunami”. That was the last sign of life from Yuko, an employee of Bank 77 in Onagawa, one of the 12 people who died on the roof of her office when the wave reached more than 15 meters high, far more than authorities had anticipated.
Since then, Yasuo became certified as a diver and has descended into the sea more than 600 times. He has found only photo albums and clothing belonging to others who were also lost. Of Yuko, still no trace. But he keeps going down every week, faithful to a promise no one else heard.
