At 80, Mr. Hatashita Sails the Pacific Solo To Bring Wife Home

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At 80, Mr. Hatashita Sails the Pacific Solo To Bring Wife Home

Former Fisherman Journeys From San Diego to Japan With Shizuko's Ashes

By SEBASTIAN MOFFETT
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
March 24, 2005; Page A1

MISAKIGUCHI, Japan -- At age 80, Sakae Hatashita felt he needed to make a grand gesture to his late wife.

During nearly four decades of marriage to Shizuko, Mr. Hatashita had focused on earning a living. He spent the first 10 years at sea as a tuna fisherman and was rarely home. Then, in 1970, he abruptly moved the family to California from Japan, despite her opposition. Shizuko died in 1998, never having felt at home in the U.S. or returned to Japan. "Before she died," he remembers, "she always said: 'I'm not American. ... Even if it's after I die, I want to go back to Japan.' "

Last year, nearing the seventh anniversary of Shizuko's death -- a traditional time of remembrance in Japan -- Mr. Hatashita decided he would grant her wish and bring her ashes to her father's grave in Japan. To make the trip really count, he decided not to get on a plane, but to travel the hard way -- by sailing alone more than 10,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean. He bought a yacht and learned to sail, making use of his knowledge of the ocean from his fisherman days. He placed a square pot containing Shizuko's ashes in a small Buddhist altar in the boat's cabin and left San Diego harbor alone last spring.

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Mr. Hatashita began his long farewell from San Diego. He first sailed to Tahiti -- which he had visited as a fisherman and wanted to see again for old time's sake -- and then on to Hawaii. In the beginning, the sailing was smooth. He used electric winches to set the sails. Navigation was simple with global positioning system, or GPS, equipment, and the boat sailed by autopilot when he slept, making it "the same as driving a car," he says. Mr. Hatashita loaded the boat with household belongings, including the futon he had shared with his wife. He hung her picture on the cabin wall... Setting out in October from Hawaii for the final leg, Mr. Hatashita hit the typhoon season. It took him more than two months to get close to Japan. When a storm hit on Dec. 6, while Mr. Hatashita was inside the cabin, the Miya capsized and righted herself in seconds.

A week later, as he neared the Japanese island of Kozu, a fishing boat rammed the port side of the yacht in the middle of the night. The impact hurled Mr. Hatashita against one of the stays -- wires that stretch from the deck to high up on the mast to hold it up. The wire sliced the muscle in his right arm down to the bone. The mast crashed to the deck and snapped. A large hole in her side, the Miya was towed into port by the coast guard. When Mr. Hatashita finally arrived on land, malnutrition had left his skin peeling and blistered. Lack of exercise on the yacht had atrophied the muscles in his legs, and he could no longer walk. After having the boat patched up for a short trip, he completed the journey to the Japanese mainland under engine and then went to the hospital.

After treatment and proper eating, Mr. Hatashita can now walk again and his arm has healed. He lives in an inn used by fishermen near the boatyard where the Miya is being repaired. Shizuko's father's grave is in Nagano, in the mountains of central Japan, so he is waiting for the snow to thaw. "Then I'm going to take my wife to Nagano," he says. In the meantime, Mr. Hatashita, now 81, spends his days planning his next adventure: sailing back to the U.S. "Life is a gamble," he says. "You could have had a car crash -- it's the same as that. If people think too much they won't move a single step."

Write to Sebastian Moffett at [email protected]

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