In the quiet coastal town of Onagawa, Japan, Yasuo Takamatsu’s life has been defined by a relentless quest. Every week, he slips into a scuba diving suit and descends into the ocean depths, searching for the remains of his wife, Yuko, lost in the devastating 2011 Tōhoku tsunami.
The tsunami, triggered by a colossal 9.1 magnitude earthquake on March 11, 2011, was the worst in Japan’s history and the fourth most devastating globally. It left an estimated 18,000 people dead and over 2,500 still missing, including Yuko.
Yuko was at her job in a bank when the immense waves struck. A phone, later recovered from the bank’s parking lot, held her final message to her husband: “Are you okay? I want to go home.” Another unsent message captured the escalating horror: “The tsunami is disastrous.”
For two and a half years, Takamatsu tirelessly searched on land, clinging to hope. In 2013, he took the extraordinary step of learning to scuba dive, embarking on a new chapter in his search for Yuko. Now, over a decade later, he continues to dive, aided by Masayoshi Takahashi, a diving instructor who volunteers his time to help search for tsunami victims.
“I haven’t quite been able to get used to the buoyancy while diving,” Takamatsu admitted in an earlier interview for a short film The Diver. “I need to get better, to find my wife.”
The story of Takamatsu’s devotion has touched hearts worldwide. As he descends into the vast ocean depths, Takamatsu embodies a quiet determination to find peace and bring his beloved Yuko home.
“I dive as if I’m going to meet her someplace,” Takamatsu shared in an interview. “I’m always thinking that she may be somewhere nearby.” He further added “I do want to find her, but I also feel that she may never be discovered as the ocean is way too vast – but I have to keep looking.”
To this day, Takamatsu still continues the search for his wife’s body.
