Hiromitsu Shinkawa was rescued Sunday about 10 miles out to sea, sitting atop a roof that the tsunami knocked off his house two days earlier.
He told rescuers that he and his wife had returned home shortly after the 9.0-magnitude quake to pick up some belongings when the tsunami slammed the city of Minamisoma. "I was saved by holding onto the roof, but my wife was swept away," he said, according to the Kyodo news agency.
Rescuers aboard a Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer spotted him waving a red flag as he sat on the remnants of his roof amid wood and other debris at sea.
