The story is drawn from the recent earthquake that has devastated Japan. It’s a story about a man challenged by a great force of nature. It’s a mythic story. It’s a divinely human story:
When the tsunami came, everyone ran to the hills. But Sugawara ran to his boat and steered it into deeper waters. “I knew if I didn’t save my boat, my island would be isolated and in trouble,” he tells CNN.
As he passed his other boats, used for fishing abalone, he said goodbye to them, apologizing that he could not save them all.
Then the first wave came. Sugawara says he is used to seeing waves up to 5 meters high but this was four-times that size.
“My feeling at this moment is indescribable,” he says with glistening eyes. “I talked to my boat and said you’ve been with me 42 years. If we live or die, then we’ll be together, then I pushed on full throttle.”
“Here was my boat and here was the wave,” he says, holding one hand low and the other stretched high above his head. “I climbed the wave like a mountain. When I thought I had got to the top, the wave got even bigger.”
Sugawara’s arms flail wildly as he describes the top of the wave crashing down repeatedly onto his boat. “I closed my eyes and felt dizzy. When I opened them, I could see the horizon again, so I knew I’d made it.”
Then the next wave came. Sugawara can’t remember if there were four or five waves, but he says he did not feel afraid, he was just focused on steering his boat.
Suddenly the sea was completely calm and he knew he had beaten the tsunami.
The man and the ship. The man and the sea. The man and the absolute master, death.
Beautiful
I smell an excellent documentary waiting to happen. This is just an extreme case of “either a good time or a good story”.
Props to this man for his bravery.