Boy's football lost in tsunami found in Alaska

A football swept away by last year's tsunami and found on a remote
Alaskan island is to be returned after its teenageJapanese owner was
identified.
Sixteen-year-old Misaki Murakami's name was written on the ball that
was swept out to sea in March 2011.
David Baxter found it morethan a year later on Alaska's Middleton
Island, 70 miles (112km) from the mainland.
Mr Murakami told Japanesemedia he was sure the ball was his and would
be happy to have it back.
"I'm very grateful as I've sofar found nothing that I'd owned," he
told broadcaster TBS on Sunday.
Mr Murakami lives in the town of Rikuzen-takata, which was very badly
hit by the tsunami.
On the day of the disaster the school boy was at home sick, but fled
to higher ground when the earthquake struck, Kyodo News reported. His
home was then swept away.
The ball - given to him by his classmates in 2005 when he moved
schools - was found by US man David Baxter on a beach in Middleton
Island.
According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) , Mr Baxter's Japanese wife translated the writing on the ball,
which included a school name and a "good luck" message.
"This may be one of the first opportunities since theMarch 2011
tsunami that a remnant washed away from Japan has been identified and
could actually be returned to its previous owner."
The couple reportedly plan to send back the ball to Mr Murakami. They
also found a volleyball but have not been able to identify the owner.
NOAA has been monitoring floating debris from the tsunami over the past year.
The shrimping boat Ryou-Un Maru, which was traced to the Japanese
island of Hokkaido, also drifted to Alaska.
The US Coast Guard sank the crewless ship, which was first spotted off
the coast of the Canadian province of British Columbia on 23 March./

--
/- - -