March 2011: The Day She Disappeared
On March 11, 2011, Yasuo Takamatsu’s life changed forever. His wife, Yuko, was at her job at the 77 Bank branch in Onagawa when the magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck, triggering a tsunami that swallowed the northeastern coast of Japan.
That day, she sent him a final message: “Are you OK? I want to go home.” Minutes later, her office was swept away by a wave estimated between 49 and 57 feet tall. Of the 13 employees who fled to the rooftop, 12 died, including Yuko.
A Pink Phone and an Unsent Text
A month later, someone found Yuko’s pink flip phone in a parking lot near the bank. An unsent message read, “So much tsunami,” timestamped at 3:25 p.m. Takamatsu believed that meant she was still alive on the roof at that time.
Her body was never recovered. She became one of more than 2,500 people still listed as missing after the disaster. Miyagi Prefecture, where Onagawa is located, has the highest number of missing persons from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Diving Into the Depths
In 2013, Takamatsu, then 67 years old and retired from Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force, began taking diving lessons.
He wanted to search the seabed for any trace of his wife. Since then, he has completed over 600 dives in the waters off Onagawa. He has searched the ocean floor tirelessly, uncovering items like photo albums and clothing—but never a trace of Yuko. Still, he continues, driven by the belief that he might one day find her.
A Promise That Endures
Takamatsu now works as a bus driver. He uses his days off to dive. Each dive brings him back into the sorrow of that day, but also keeps him close to his wife. On the 13th anniversary of the tsunami, in March 2024, he returned to the sea once more.
“To find her,” he said, “is the only thing I can do.” His search continues, more than a decade later, sustained by the promise in a message that never reached him and by a memory that remains vivid beneath the surface.
Each week since 2013, Yasuo Takamatsu dives into the sea off Onagawa, Japan, searching for his wife Yuko, lost in the 2011 tsunami.
She sent him a final message as the waves rose.
14 years later, her body was never found, but he has never stopped looking…🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/vc4W7uyijW
— Detective Tiger's Stories (@TigerDetective) June 1, 2025