Man Finds Wife and Mother in Japan by Searching in Scuba Gear

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A bit of good news in the midst of the sad, the L.A. Times has the pretty great story of a one Japanese man who managed to find his wife and mother after days of waiting for outside help by donning scuba gear and going out and searching for them. Appropriately, Hideaki Akaiwa, 43, met his wife some 20 years ago while surfing. When the tsunami hit, he was at work and came home to find his neighborhood submerged in 10 feet of water. Not content to wait,

Akaiwa got hold of some scuba gear. He then hit the water, wended his way through the debris and underwater hazards and managed to reach his house, from which he dragged his wife to safety.

"The water felt very cold, dark and scary," he recalled. "I had to swim about 200 yards to her, which was quite difficult with all the floating wreckage."

When his mother was still missing several days later, he did the same, and found her on the second floor of a flooded house. She'd been waiting for help for four days.

Now Akaiwa is looking for other trapped survivors.

In other heart-warming news, watch this video of a dog that leads rescuers to its injured friend.

For one quake survivor, self-help in the face of seeming helplessness [LAT]


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