Akiko Kosaka, a student from Japan attending University of California at Riverside, feared for her family with the tsunami that hit her fishing village of Minami Sanriku last week where more than half of the 17,000 residents are missing and feared dead. For three days she religiously searched the web in hopes to find some information on the whereabouts of her family. She received an email that her younger sister Yukako, 13, was likely safe in her middle school’s shelter. But she wasn’t fully relieved, she needed to find out if her parents, paternal grandparents, and older sister who all live under one roof were safe.
“I didn’t think they survived,” Kosaka, 20, told CNN during a tearful interview Tuesday. “I cried for three days — Friday, Saturday, Sunday.”
Finally she received word Sunday night from a friend in Japan of a 45 second video on YouTube showing her family home as the only one standing among the the rubble and debris. The video showed her older sister holding a sign to TV news crew saying in Japanese, “We are all safe.” She screamed with a sigh of relief and was happy to tell her host parents in Riverside, that her family survived. This is truly a touching story, let’s continue to keep Japan in our prayers.
(CNN, bighaber)
