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Japanese UC Student Finds Family Safe and Sound on YouTube

by Terrence O'Brien on March 17, 2011 at 01:20 PM

Akiko Kosaka, a 20-year-old student at the University of California Riverside, was one of many people looking everywhere she could for information about her loved ones in Japan -- a family that includes two sisters, parents and paternal grandparents, all of whom lived under one roof in the fishing village of Minami Sanriku. Kosaka eventually received word that her youngest sister was safe and in a shelter at her middle school, but the rest of her family remained frustratingly elusive.

After days without any communication, she'd assumed that the rest of her family had been lost in the disaster. But then a friend contacted her to say there was a video on YouTube of a newscast showing her family home still standing, with her older sister waving a sign from the balcony. Though the 45-second clip proved difficult to track down, Kosaka finally found it after several hours searching. And there was her older sister, drawing the attention of news camera crew and waving a sign that read "we're all safe." Kosaka is now trying to send word to her family that she's seen the video. The ordeal is not over yet for her Kosaka or her family, but she's just happy to hear that they're alive. "It's a miracle," she told CNN, "It makes me very happy."

Tags: akiko kosaka, AkikoKosaka, japan, japan earthquake, japan tsunami, JapanEarthquake, JapanTsunami, top, tsunami, web, youtube

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