HONOLULU: A Japanese man says he’s grateful for the return of his boat three years after it disappeared in the March 2011 tsunami.

Tomomune Matsunaga lost his home and personal watercraft to the earthquake and tsunami that killed 16,000 people. A Hawaii volunteer found the small boat on Johnston Atoll, in the Pacific Ocean.

A student training vessel carried the watercraft from Honolulu to Japan, and Matsunaga got it back on Nov 10, his birthday.

In a letter thanking people who returned the boat, Matsunaga says he holds memories of working on the craft in his garage and of his children playing on it.

He says he looks forward to using it again when it’s repaired in a few years.

Published in Dawn, November 25th , 2014