CNN News - Witness to disaster: Six months on from Japan's tsunami. Sep 05, 2011

Capturing a nightmare

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Akiko Iwasaki was heading for high ground when she was caught in the March 11 tsunami
• The hotel owner sank below the surface, just as cars and other debris swept over her
• Remarkably she survived the ordeal and is now determined to rebuild her hotel
• The devastated city of Kamaishi, where 900 died, is slowly starting to recover

Kamaishi, Japan (CNN) -- Akiko Iwasaki could see it, the higher ground that would keep her safe. But she didn't make it.

She was only a few feet away when she was swallowed by a massive wave which carried away cars, houses -- basically everything in its path.

At first, she thought her life would end there. But she wasn't afraid. She realized she was not prepared to die yet.

"I wanted to live," Iwasaki recalled of the moment almost six months to the day when northeastern Japan was hit by the giant tsunami triggered by an earthquake.

Japan's new PM pledges to rebuild

"I started swimming up towards the surface of the water. There was a boat above me, but somehow, I moved it out of the way. Then the light became brighter above and I thought I could be saved if I reached the surface."

Iwasaki had been trying to escape along a small path leading up the hill behind the hotel she owned in Kamaishi when she was suddenly engulfed by rushing water.

Some of the Horaikan's employees and neighbors who had already climbed high up the hill saw her disappear into a whirlpool. She sank below the surface, just as cars and other debris swept over her. Iwasaki's daughter screamed as she watched her mother disappear.

Because I survived, I believe I should live my life fully, for the people who lost theirs.
--Akiko Iwasaki

Witnesses look back at tsunami

RELATED TOPICS

• Japan
• Fukushima Daiichi
• Japanese Politics

Satoshi Ito, the hotel manager, had already escaped high into the hills that day. From his smartphone, he captured the scene as the hotel's employees tried to escape the tsunami. He looked back and saw that large debris was crashing against the mountainside where Iwasaki was just seconds ago.

Watch Satoshi's footage

"It took a little while," Ito said, "before realizing that we might have lost Iwasaki's life."

But moments later Iwasaki emerged from the water, 50 feet away from where she disappeared. She was swept onto a nearby hillside with other debris.

She cannot explain how she survived; why she wasn't one of the 20,000 people who died or are still missing following the disaster.