Alaska soccer ball traced to tsunami survivor

A Japanese teenager who lost his home and belongings in last year's tsunami will get one thing back -- a soccer ball he received as a farewell gift from his classmates.

NHK: The soccer ball washed ashore on Middleton Island in the US state of Alaska. David Baxter, an Alaska resident found the ball during a visit to the island last month.

The ball carries messages dated March 2005 to Misaki Murakami, a third grader at a primary school in Rikuzentakata City, Iwate Prefecture. The owner is now 16 and still lives in the city. The ball was a gift from his homeroom teacher and classmates when Murakami was transferred to another school after finishing the third grade.

Murakami says he was astonished to hear that the ball had been found. He also says he is happy because he has lost everything else in the disaster.

He thanked Baxter for taking the trouble to find out where the ball came from.

A lot of debris will be floating towards the U.S. and Canada, I hope it will be taken care of. Much of it will be from people here that did not survive the March 11 disaster. The Pacific Ocean is a reminder of how close we all are to each other.