Amid the unremitting horror and devastation there came a rare story of survival
Hiromitsu Shinkawa was found floating nearly ten miles out at sea on the roof of his house, two days after the quake struck.
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As the wave approached his home city of Minamisoma on Friday, the 60-year-old and his wife took the fateful decision to return home to collect
belongings.
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Minutes later Mr Shinkawa was being dragged out to sea in swirling currents. He was eventually spotted by a navy vessel searching for victims,
clinging to the wreckage with one hand and waving a makeshift red flag with the other.
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After being hauled on to the rescue boat, Mr Shinkawa burst into tears when he was told that his wife was still missing. ‘No helicopters or
boats that came nearby noticed me,’ he said. ‘I thought that day was going to be the last day of my life.’
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It’s always awesome to read about these stories, especially with all the doom and gloom over the last week. It just goes to show that the most
important part of survival is will power and mindset. I hope to read more of these in the coming weeks.
edit on 16-3-2011 by Monkeygod333
because: (no reason given)
The sound of a baby’s cry amid the rubble seemed so impossible that soldiers searching a tsunami-smashed village dismissed it as a mistake.
But it came again. And they realised they had not been hearing things.
They pulled away wood and slate, dug back thick oozing mud - and there was the child they were to describe as a “tiny miracle”.
The four-month-old girl had been swept from her parents’ arms in the shattered village of Ishinomaki when the deadly wave crashed into the family
home.
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One of them picked her up in his arms, wrapped her in a blanket which had been handed to him and cradled the child as his colleagues crowded
around, not believing that someone as young as this had survived when all hope had been lost.
The tiniest survivor was cold and wet and crying, but she is believed to have suffered no other injuries. Why she did not drown remained a mystery.
But the soldiers were somehow able to trace her overjoyed father, who had been taking refuge in his wrecked home with the rest of his family.
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