Found

Tsunami Soccer Ball Lands in Alaska

Japanese teen owner found.

The first traceable debris from last year’s tsunami has turned up in Alaska—a soccer ball owned by a Japanese teenager. The ball—along with a volleyball—was discovered by David Baxter, a technician working at a radar station on Middleton Island in the Gulf of Alaska. The owner’s name was written on the ball, and a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employee posted about it on his blog. Misaki Murakami from Rikuzentakata saw the reports and recognized it. It’s the first of his family’s belongings that he’s found since the tsunami destroyed his home. The ball was a gift from his former homeroom teacher and his 13 classmates when he had to change schools seven years ago.