Chiyumi Yamane holds the remains of her daughter Natsuse in Minami-Sanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, on Thursday (Oct 16, 2025). - Photo: The Yomiuri Shimbun
MIYAKO, Iwate (Japan): The partial remains of a six-year-old girl who had been missing since the tsunami triggered by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake were handed over to her family on Thursday (Oct 16), 14 years and seven months after the water swept her away.
“You tried so hard. Thank you for coming back to us,” Chiyumi Yamane said as she tightly cuddled the small urn containing the remains of her daughter Natsuse.
Chiyumi, 49, her husband Tomonori, 52, and their son Daiya, 26, visited Minami-Sanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, to receive Natsuse’s remains from the police who worked to identify her.
“We’ve kept you waiting for a long time,” said Minami-Sanriku Police Station Chief Hiroshi Kano as he handed tearful Chiyumi the remains in the container wrapped with a cloth.
It was a long time for the family who lost Natsuse. Immediately after the earthquake, they searched temporary morgues and other places, looking for clues.
They did not want to accept it, but about six months later, they came to terms with the thought that there was no possibility that their daughter had survived and someone was looking after her. They then filed a report of her death with their local town office.
Always smiling, Natsuse loved cats and playing outside.
Every June on her birthday, her family counted the age she would have reached and offered her favourite cream-filled cake at the family’s Buddhist altar.
But as the anniversary of the disaster approached every year, they felt a deep sadness.
They began to feel that she might never come back to them.
On Sept 30, when they had nearly given up hope of finding her, Tomonori’s mobile phone rang. It was a call from the Miyagi prefectural police informing him that Natsuse’s remains had been found.
Tomonori and Chiyumi cried out loud over the phone over “a miracle” that just happened to them.
On the day of the earthquake, Natsuse was swept away by the tsunami while at home with her grandmother. Her grandmother miraculously survived.
In February 2023, a construction worker volunteering to clean nearby coastlines discovered what eventually proved to be Natsuse’s remains in Minami-Sanriku, about 100 kilometers from her home in Yamada, Iwate Prefecture.
The remains, consisting of part of her jawbone with some teeth attached, were identified to be those of Natsuse through mitochondrial DNA analysis.
“The missing piece of our family has finally been put in place, and the clock that had stopped has started ticking again,” Chiyumi said. “We can live together as four once again.”
The family went home together, carefully holding onto Natsuse. - The Yomiuri Shimbun
