Japan tsunami victim asks Aberdeen to keep watch for his items
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ABERDEEN, Wash. -- It may be a post office miracle -- a postcard from Japan recently arrived in Aberdeen at the office of Mayor Bill Simpson. It's from the town of Sapporo, where a victim of the March 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami is now living with relatives.
The 77-year-old man was asking for help finding things the tsunami swept away.
"Well I am the aged 77 one who lost my collected survey accounts, library cards...," Simpson read from the letter. He says the man was asking to keep watch for several things.
"Whether it is letters he had saved, jewelry or watches or whatever the case may be," Simpson said.
Simpson wrote back explaining Aberdeen isn't on the ocean -- it's about 20 miles inland, but he wanted to help and alerted the towns of Westport and Ocean Shores.
"I've been on the beach, I've been looking to see if I can see things that might be identifiable as tsunami debris," said Ocean Shores Police Chief Mike Styner. "I haven't found any myself, but there has been stuff found on the north beach."
Late Wednesday, we learned the missing items include prepaid book accounts perhaps worth several hundred dollars.
"Definitely could be a needle in a haystack," Styner said. "Stranger things have happened."
Very few people have seen anything so far, but locals say the storms start in October and that's when something could wash up from the Pacific Ocean.
The 77-year-old man was asking for help finding things the tsunami swept away.
"Well I am the aged 77 one who lost my collected survey accounts, library cards...," Simpson read from the letter. He says the man was asking to keep watch for several things.
"Whether it is letters he had saved, jewelry or watches or whatever the case may be," Simpson said.
Simpson wrote back explaining Aberdeen isn't on the ocean -- it's about 20 miles inland, but he wanted to help and alerted the towns of Westport and Ocean Shores.
"I've been on the beach, I've been looking to see if I can see things that might be identifiable as tsunami debris," said Ocean Shores Police Chief Mike Styner. "I haven't found any myself, but there has been stuff found on the north beach."
Late Wednesday, we learned the missing items include prepaid book accounts perhaps worth several hundred dollars.
"Definitely could be a needle in a haystack," Styner said. "Stranger things have happened."
Very few people have seen anything so far, but locals say the storms start in October and that's when something could wash up from the Pacific Ocean.
Such a respectful and eloquent request from a 71 year old man whose life has been devastated. Helps to remind me of the pain behind what washes on our shores.
We were on the coast at Ozette over the weekend and found TONS of Japanese water bottles (my son's favorite was the one that said "Minute Maid" and all of the rest of the text was in Japanese symbols), fishing floats, a rice bag that had been set up by someone as a flag, boards with Japanese stamps on them. It is definitely coming ashore.
Nice penmanship for someone who is ESL at best. Â Sort of puts the human face on what so many have lost in that tragedy.
 @Doxie Nice penmanship even for people who claim English as their first language. I hope he finds some of his stuff
 @chandler Exactly! Cursive isn't even taught anymore.  I hope he does too.
If I found something from Japan I would try to turn it in; however I don't think much of it would even be identifiable at this point.
 @alildifferent:Â
Not necessarily. There was a soccer ball with a person's name on it that washed ashore earlier this summer, and with some sleuthing, the finders were able to reunited the ball with it's owner in Japan.
I think that with the summertime weather pattern, one's best chances now of finding tsunami debris is in the area from southeast Alaska to the northern part of Vancouver Island. Once the winter storms resume, I think we will again be seeing and seeing on the news a lot more of it on US west coast beaches.
That would be cool if some of his things are found and returned. Keep your eyes peeled beachcombers.