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Noaa - Jiji Press / AFP - Getty Images
This soccer ball is believed to have drifted from Rikuzentakata, Japan, to Alaska following the March 2011 tsunami.
A Japanese teenager has identified himself as the owner of a soccer ball that washed up on an Alaska beach last week – the first traceable debris to arrive in the United States from last year's tsunami.
Misaki Murakami, who comes from the city of Rikuzentakata, where more than 3,000 homes were destroyed, came forward on Sunday after reading news reports about the find.
Marker pen writing on the soccer ball identified the 16-year-old and the name of his school.
The soccer ball and a volleyball were discovered by David Baxter, a technician working at a radar station on remote Middleton Island in the Gulf of Alaska, Doug Helton of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wrote ina blog post last week.
Japan’s Kyodo news agency said Murakami was at home at the time of the tsunami disaster in March 2011 but managed to escape the waves by running to higher ground with his pet dog.
Kyodo via Reuters
Misaki Murakami, 16, says he is the owner of a soccer ball that was found on the shore of a remote Alaska island.
His family lost everything, including their home, and are currently living in temporary housing provided by the local government.
Ghost ship sinks to bottom of Gulf of Alaska
Murakami told the news agency Sunday that he had been searching for his family's belongings but that until the ball was found he had had no luck.
Prized possession
The ball was a gift from his former homeroom teacher and his 13 classmates when he had to change schools in the same area seven years ago.
He said it was a prized possession, which he always kept hanging in a net next to his bed.
Kyodo News via AP
David and Yumi Baxter hold the soccer ball and a volleyball at their home in Alaska.
Doug Helton of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that there wasn't enough information on the volleyball for Japanese officials to locate its possible owner.
Murakami spoke with Baxter on the phone to thank him for finding his treasured ball.
The magnitude 9.0 earthquake off Japan's northeast coast on March 11, 2011, triggered a 75-foot wall of water that flattened waterfront towns, killing 16,000. About 3,000 people are still unaccounted for. The tsunami triggered a crisis at Tokyo Electric Power's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee in the world's worst nuclear accident in 25 years.
An earthquake, a tsunami, a nuclear meltdown -- residents of Japan's northeast coast suffered through three intertwined disasters after a massive 9.0 magnitude temblor struck off the coast on March 11, 2011.
U.S. authorities were immediately aware that the clockwise circulation of the Pacific's northern waters would deliver some remnants of that destruction to American shores.
A Japanese ghost ship, Ryou-Un Maru, turned up earlier in the Gulf of Alaska off Southeast Alaska after a 4,500-mile journey. The U.S. Coast Guard sank the vessel April 5.
Tracking the debris from the Japan tsunami can be tricky, as it moves across the Pacific via ocean currents and winds. NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports.
In January, a half-dozen large buoys suspected to be from Japanese oyster farms appeared at the top of Alaska's panhandle and may be among the first tsunami debris.
State health and environmental officials have said there's little need to be worried that debris landing on Alaska's shores will be contaminated by radiation.
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Leave a Comment:
Better than a message in a bottle. ☺
It's just a soccer ball. A lot of resources were wasted delivering it back to Japan. The Earth needs better stewards or else we will all suffer.
It's time we pay the pied piper. The world needs America to lead.
So you can't even be happy for a boy who's prized possession has been recovered? Sounds like you need to pay the piper and learn to recognize positive out of tragedy and not worry so much about Lebron James.
@Lebron... - Your screen name say about all I need to know about you. You obviously have no idea what it is like to suffer such a major loss as those in Japan have suffered. You are truly one cold SOB.
I think it is great that this kid is going to get his prized soccer ball back. For someone who has lost everything, getting even one small part of their life back can be a huge thing for their morale. It think it is fantastic that the people who found the ball took the initiative to try and locate the owner. I only wish there were more people in the world like them and fewer like @Lebron...
Heartbreaking pictures. Humanity needs to be able to look further than 15 minutes into the future if we are to survive.
OK, it pretty amazing that the ball can be traced to this kid, BUT the thing that jumps out at me from this artical is that it took the US NAVY 4 FREAKIN hours to sink an unmannd fishing boat??? WOW!!!
American does --- in compassion. Where's yours?
The U.S. Coast Guard ended sank the vessel April 5 ... NOT the US Navy. Armament is quite different.
It says that it's a ghost ship. They are notoriously difficult to hit.
JS in SD I agree with you. Well said.
Yep, I'm sure FED EX put the ball on a plane all by itself and flew it directly to the kid's house. :P
Misaki is one hot chick!!
muddlerfly
You're not funny and we all know you are a troll.
I clicked on the commentary with an expectation that I would quickly find the Grinch lair... Congratulations to "Lebron James is a BIG FAT Loser" at coming in at 1.1, you win the delightful commentator award.
As for returning the soccer ball, the least we can do.
Murakami-san, I hope that the volleyball return brings some relief to you during your families tragic loss.
As for the posters who could care less about the simple return of this item to it's owner whose famly lost everything during the Tsunami, I hope that nothing like this happens to your family.
A private citizen can find a volleyball on an Aleutian island, but the authorities can't find the first kid ever pictured on a milk carton in New York.
Wilson!!!!!!!!!
muddlerfly....."Misaki is one hot chick!!"
Heya muddler......Misaki is not a young girl, lady, nor woman....but a MAN !!! Time to take your comments to First Read, they would love to hear from you.
Packman,
they also had to drain the oil/fuel then remove anything that could have harmed the local sea life before sinking it. You cannot just sink a ship intentionally outside of war without dealing with the environmental regulations/restrictions for doing so, just like you can't drive a car into a lake or river as part of a tv show/movie without doing the same.
Geowil,
It was my understanding from previous articles that they would be sinking the ship with the fuel on board. Which really surprised me. They said it was too dangerous for anyone to get on the ship to remove it. ???? If that would have been a local fisherman who's boat and business sank accidently they would come down like a hammer for polluting the sea. But it's ok if the government does it.
Packman711:
Did you expect them to torpedo the thing? When ships are intentionally sunk, I believe that they are scuttled. And, obviously, there were fuel/oil issues to deal with. Plus, I'm sure that they wanted to somewhat plan where the thing would end up. Shipping lanes, the effect on marine life, etc, are all things that had to be taken into consideration.
I'm so happy to hear that the teenager has been located and that his cherished memento can be returned to him! I hope that the volleyball can also be sent back to Japan and that someone can can be matched up with those inscriptions, too.
Much like the ongoing projects underway in Japan that are trying to salvage, restore, and return photographs lost in the disaster, this is a heartwarming story of returning one small, important piece of normalcy to this teen. So many families in Japan lost everything, and while it may seem like a small comfort to get something so simple back, I have to feel that any little piece of their old lives would be embraced as a victory in the face of such total loss and devastation.
Good luck to Masakami and his family -- and a huge thank you to the Baxter family for doing such a good deed for one kid half a world away!
Reminds me of Tom Hanks only friend...... "Wilson" probably atleast someone in the same family, maybe "Spaulding" or "Voit"!
Heartwarming story. Glad that someone cared enough to find the owner and follow-up. The world needs more compassion, kids have a hard time growing up, nice idea to give them credit and a little TLC once in a while.
Could this be a new olympic sport, "Intercontinental Volleyball" OK, you folks of the frozen tundra, the ball is in your court. Let's see you spike it back to Japan or even China if you are really good.
"The soccer ball and a volleyball were discovered by David Baxter, about a technician working at a radar station on remote Middleton Island, in the Gulf of Alaska...."
MSNBC really needs to hire better proofreaders, or at least use "spell check". Mr. Baxter is not "about a technician". Having to reread parts of poorly worded news stories in order to understand them, is ridiculous. Good grammar does matter in news articles written by paid professionals, but MSNBC doesn't seem to know that- or care. Glad the boy and his soccer ball are reunited in any case.
I completely agree. Proofreading in almost all news stories these days is terrible. There is another error further down in the story "The U.S. Coast Guard ended sank the vessel April 5". You see these things more and more where news articles are now being written as blogs, as fast as they can and published from the field with little to no proofing.
getting kind of tiresome reading stuff that a third grader would be embarrased by! I completely agree with your assessment of MSNBC's writing skills.
I remember having read posts from people complaining about this very subject and thinking 'don't people have anything better to do'. However, the bad grammar, punctuation and spell check seems to be getting worse every day on MSNBC.
Agreed. They also got the date wrong below one of the photos- the Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear disaster happened in 2011, not 2001.
That's because they are not being written by paid staff. They're being written by a trained monkey. Way cheaper because they pay it with bananas and don't have to offer any benefits. So quit being so hard on the monkey, he's doing the best he can.
Wilson ?
Agreed. That was one of the most poorly constructed sentences I've read in quite some time. And I edit blog posts from code geeks. ("My" geeks are absolutely brilliant, but horrific writers!)
Incredible how one soccer ball can tell a story.
The unfortunate story they don't tell, is the trail of radiation that travels like the ball. Too big a problem and not much we can do about it so neither US or Japan will admit it.
If you're reading this story and all you're taking away from it is the grammatical mistakes that made it through, you've got bigger issues... see, this story was about 2 people sending lost treasures to someone they will probably never meet.. How about you look beyond your own little world behind your computers and grow a heart.
Nikolaus20, Mike-3046650 and the other grammar police.
Just don't care. Why do you?
So this is how the world war starts, refusing to give the volleyball back. HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA...Ok its early, I'll go get my coffee now
Another black mark for america.
Why is this another 'black mark' for America? Maybe YOU need to get some coffee too, or go back to bed. Can't stand a story with a happy plot instead of murder, missing children, missing women, scandal, death, etc.??? Jerk!
Finders keepers.
Soccer is gay
Another idiot heard from! Soccer is the biggest sport in the world. It doesn't matter WHAT the sexual orientation of the players is. You're the type of person who causes all the negativity in the world. I guess you'd say that gymnastics is 'gay' too! Get a life and stop bashing people! We're all human beings! We all bleed red blood and breathe the same air.
So are they sending the ball back or what?
How interesting that no matter what man does to try to "save" the earth it seems the earth does not care and has another earthquake, hurricane, tornado, volcano, flood, etc causing not only millions in damage but tons of waste and debris.
On the same day our school was having paperless day to try to save trees (i think we managed to save about 1/10 of a tree by not using paper that day) the Japan earthquake/tsunami happened causing millions of trees to be destroyed (oh, yes, I think a few humans lost their lives that day too)
I guess "mother earth" is just a term and trees do not hug back.
In Africa, environmentalists are trying to save the rhinos, elephants and African environment but totally ignore the needs of indigenous tribes who have to live off the land because they have little else.
Everyone is worried about poor polar bears losing their ice but there are 3x more polar bears today than in the 1960s.
And back in the 60's it was global cooling that had scientists worried.
I think somehow the wrong message is getting put across. Or is it just more social engineering?
A cool story. (But keep that kid away from Zimmerman.)
He's not wearing a hoodie nor is he carrying ice tea and Skittles so I think he's safe.
A Beautiful Story for the Beautiful Game.
palin is going to try to re-captured it and start a war about it as she gazes out of her window contemplating Russia....
please shut up you're not even funny
Sam, you're a total idiot.
Many would wonder if radiation contaminated materials are also in that glob of trash.
Did you not read the article before commenting? Last sentence of article,
"State health and environmental officials have said there's little need to be worried that debris landing on Alaska's shores will be contaminated by radiation."
Little need to be worried, because there is nothing you can do about it anyway. Say, what has happened to all of the King Crab this year???
Of course it is. Why would they tell you contaminated trash is floating to AK? Nothing bad happens to naive Americans for it is so written that they will be safe in the land of Smugnesia.
Wasn't everything washed out to sea before the nuclear plant started to melt down? That ball was well on its way here before the 3rd round of hell broke loose there....(earthquake, tsunami, nuclear reactor "accident waiting to happen")
Either way, it's a cool story and one young man is extremely thankful. After searching for anything that belonged to his family and finding nothing, the fact that his ball turned up one year later and thousands of miles away is pretty amazing.
I can only hope that others who lost everything that day will also get a piece of their past back.
Send Wilson home. It is more about compassion than fuel cost.
Someone might pay good money for a verifiable piece of tsunami debri, with an interesting story, that's been washed up over 3000 miles away.
who cares?
Obviously you do, you took the time to comment after all...troll. You trolls are so easy to spot. You're going to have to try a little harder to hide your true self if you don't want to be outed as a troll.
Wilson!!!
Pretty cool.
@Lebron, obviously you have nothing that has a sentimental value. What wasted resources? The ball was found. There was not a big search for it.They probably put the ball in a box, taped it shut, and mailed it by UPS, FedEx,etc. People send stuff that way all the time. I was also going to say something nasty, but decided against it. There is too much anger and hate in the world already. Have a good day.
It is not just a soccor ball, it is all somebody has left of their possessions. God bless the Baxters of the world..
I don't understand the game, and find it boring to watch, but I am glad the kid will get a small piece of his life back.
Very happy he's alive to tell the tale. Please, someone return a possession that is very well part of happy days versus what he experienced during the earthquake and tsunami. Can't we at least work at being kind to each other?
So where's the part about how or when the ball will be returned to the boy? That should have been the third paragraph, or at least the conclusion of the story. Did anyone writing on the internet ever go to journalism school?
Exactly what I was thinking Michael-380693!
I find this to be a good story.Thanks to all involved in finding this young man..
True. Maybe if we had a few hearth warming stories everyday, the world might be just a bit less scary
Doesn't anyone proof read these stories? Nothing is more annoying then coming across stupid mistakes while reading an otherwise good story.
It's THAN. "Nothing is more annoying THAN...."
Don't sweat the small stuff. Besides a good reader skims over the material to pick up the context.
I normally do too, but in this case, the irony was just too great a temptation.