The massive 77-foot tsunami wave that hit Ofunato, Japan, on March 11, 2011, launched a small lifebuoy into the Pacific Ocean for a 3,500-mile journey to an uninhabited island at the entrance to Prince William Sound.
Fifteen years later, on Oct. 13, 2026, it returned to Kaneo and Junko Murakami who survived the tsunami but lost their wakame seaweed business, the boat and everything on it, including the ring.
Homer photographer and travel writer Don Pitcher found the sun-bleached, bear-gnawed lifebuoy Aug. 2 on the east side of Montague Island while volunteering with the Montague Island Cleanup project through the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies.
The find
Pitcher was collecting plastic and buoys among the thousands of logs that populate the shore when he spotted the ring.
“I had gone ahead of others down the shore, and the life ring sat atop old rotting logs on the edge of the forest,” he said. “It was covered with moss and had holes in the covering, so I knew it had been there for years.”
From the characters on the ring and his previous experiences finding large, structural pieces of bamboo on the island, Pitcher immediately thought it must have come from Japan and suspected it was tied to the tsunami.
That evening he set out to investigate the identity of the boat, photographing the ring and consulting Google Translate. The characters were deciphered as “Ofunato City, Iwate Prefecture, Kadonohama Port, Horyu Maru.”
Ofunato is a seaport located in the Iwate Prefecture about 43 miles from the epicenter of the 2011 9.0-magnitude Tōhoku underwater earthquake, known locally as the Great East Japan Earthquake. The tsunami it triggered overwhelmed the breakwater that had protected Ofunato for 40 years, surged into a narrow bay and continued inland for two miles.
Local counts estimate that 3,500 out of 15,000 homes were destroyed and 300 people killed. Nationwide, nearly 20,000 people died, mostly from drowning as a result of the tsunami.
Horyu Maru is a traditional Japanese vessel name – “Ho” means “treasure” and “ryu” means “dragon.” “Maru” literally translates as “circle” and is a symbol of unity, perfection and harmony in Japanese culture, representing the cyclical nature of life and the interconnectedness of all things. For mariners, it is a good omen, wishing their vessels a full round trip and safe return home.
These first clues set in motion Pitcher’s pursuit to locate its original owners and return the ring to Japan, all the while fearing, he said, that they, too, may have been swept out to sea.
“I wanted to know what had happened to this person and what had happened to the boat,” Pitcher said. “And I had this fear that I was going to find out somebody had died. I thought, well, if that’s the case, then I could possibly get this back to the family.
“I like challenges, so this was, OK, let’s see if I can track this thing down.”
The search
Back in Homer, Pitcher contacted the Consular Office of Japan in Anchorage for assistance with his search. He connected with Hiromi Betts, an employee who provides services to Japanese nationals in Alaska. She explained that she could not help as official business but, as an individual, would make inquiries on his behalf.
“Many Japanese are starting to forget about the disaster,” Betts said, “but Mr. Pitcher had a passion about returning it (the life buoy) to the owner. That passion motivated me.”
Betts contacted the Iwate fisheries cooperative and local newspaper, which also became interested in the story. In just over a week, Betts sent Pitcher photos of the found owners, Kaneo and Junko Murakami, and their boat.
“It was great to see photos of Mr. Murakami and his wife and to know they had survived,” Pitcher said. “I was surprised to see that he has an identical life ring from the boat that is in much better condition.”
As reported in the local newspaper, the Iwate Nippo, Murakami was “startled and initially confused” to learn of the discovery of his lifebuoy, one of two he purchased 15 years ago. One he took to the boat; the other stayed home.
The return
In September, Pitcher drove the intrepid lifebuoy to Anchorage for Betts to take back to Japan. He said Betts was especially interested to see the bite marks courtesy of the healthy brown bear population on Montague Island.
In an interview with the Homer Independent Press, Betts shared a personal reason for wanting to help return the lifebuoy — the death of Anchorage native Montgomery “Monty” Dickson.
The 26-year-old Dickson was teaching English to school children in Rikuzentakata, about 10 road miles south of Ofunato at the head of the next bay, through JET, Japan Exchange and Teaching, a worldwide program of the Japanese government to place individuals in schools, boards of education and government offices throughout Japan.
The day of the quake, Dickson evacuated with his students to the third and top floor of the Civic Cultural Hall building. He and most of his students were lost when the tsunami wave swept through the floor. Dickson was one of two U.S. citizens to die in the tsunami.
The Montgomery Dickson Center for Japanese Language and Culture at the University of Alaska Anchorage was established to further Dickson’s often-stated desire to be a bridge between the U.S. and Japan.
Betts, who started work for the Consular Office of Japan in Anchorage in 2013, did not know Dickson but now has known his sister and family for years through her work. She said the consulate has many relationships with the Iwate Prefecture because of Dickson.
“I always wanted to visit the prefecture to see the area where Monty passed away,” she said. “After many years, Don brought me the opportunity.”
On Oct. 13, Betts and representatives from the fisheries cooperative met Mr. and Mrs. Murakami at Kadonohama Fishing Port, the small local harbor near their home, to deliver the lifebuoy.
As reported in the local paper, the Murakamis were touched by the enthusiasm, kindness and effort of everyone involved and were happy that the earthquake had not been forgotten.
“It’s the kind of thing that would just be left with the garbage if someone found it,” Mr. Murakami said. “But they still went to the trouble of bringing it to me. I’m truly grateful.”
Betts said she was honored to represent Pitcher in presenting the lifebuoy but, “I wish Don was there. He is the main character.”
Seeing pictures of the presentation, Pitcher said, “It was really cool. They both looked very happy. I’m really glad it worked out.”
Pitcher didn’t know about Monty Dixon or Betts’ personal connections to the tsunami.
“Initially, she was just a random employee who just happened to be going back to Tokyo,” he said. “I’m thinking, what? Why is she going to go all the way up there? It’s nice that it worked out for her, too.”
The conclusion
Reflecting on her experience in returning the lifebuoy, Betts shared that she had been an ICU nurse near the Tokyo area before moving to the U.S. in 2006. After the earthquake, many of her fellow nurses went north to volunteer in the recovery.
“I really wanted to go, you know, as a nurse, but I was far away from home and had a baby back then,” she said. “I wanted to do something for the people who lived in that area.”
Meeting Pitcher, learning the Murakamis’ story and returning the lifebuoy to the Iwate Prefecture completed a circle, a “maru,” in her life as well.
For Pitcher, he has traveled extensively but never to Japan. Now he, too, has a special motivation to visit.
“I hope to travel there soon,” he said. “It would be great to say hello to Mr. Kaneo Murakami and to visit the Iwate Tsunami Memorial Museum.”
The museum and Takatamatsubara Memorial Park tell the story of the earthquake, share lessons learned and remember the victims of the disaster.
Betts said the Murakamis are excited about the prospect of meeting Don.
“Junko, especially, said, ‘Oh, I have to start learning English to talk with him,’” Betts said.
Pitcher, who has volunteered on numerous shoreline cleanups in Alaska, said that the North Pacific gyre and Montague’s location in the Gulf of Alaska at the entrance to Prince William Sound make the east side of the island the recipient of a lot of plastic bottles and marine debris.
“One of the shocking things about a cleanup such as this is the vast amount of plastic debris found even in such an isolated place,” Pitcher said. “I came away realizing we must use less plastic, especially items such as disposable water bottles.”
Rivers of Life profiles six days of cleanup in 2025. Pitcher produced a video of his time on the island on his Facebook.
As for the future removal of large-scale marine debris from Montague Island, the original NOAA-funded grant to Gulf of Alaska Keeper ended September 2026. Chris Pallister, president and founder of GoAK, said the program received a one-year no-cost extension to September 2027, meaning it was granted more time but not more money.
“The budget was based on October 2024 costs, which have since increased tremendously,” Pallister said. “We still have money, but it’s not enough, and we picked up a lot more debris than anticipated, so we’re on the hunt for more funding.”
Across two seasons of work, GoAK reports collecting more than 2,100 cubic yards of small plastic debris, an estimated 1,000 cubic yards of large debris like lines, nets, totes and buoys, and an estimated 450 tons of creosote and chemically treated wood – all safely cached and ready for removal.
GoAK was in the pipeline for a $20 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency that would have funded debris removal, extended the cleanup for at least six years, and helped build a CRDC Materials plant in Anchorage to turn plastic waste into a commercial low-carbon concrete additive.
The EPA grant was never awarded after the EPA administrator last year canceled its entire Environmental Justice Program. With this, future volunteer recruitment through the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies is on hold.
Pallister still is hopeful and headed back to Washington, D.C., to make the case for Alaska coastline cleanup on behalf of all the organizations and volunteers statewide that are doing this work.
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