[Brian]

For a change, there is some good news to come out of the all the loss.

A mother and her 3 year-old daughter (Mayu) and 2 year-old son (Yuta) were trapped in their car when a cliff following route 117 collapsed taking them and the road that they were driving on at the time almost all the way down to the Shinano river.

After 92 hours exposed to the elements, and trapped below ground without food, water, or heat, rescuers pulled young Yuta Minugawa out of the wreckage and airlifted him to a hospital in Nagaoka to receive the attention that he so desparately needed.

Unfortunately, his mother and sister were not as fortunate as Yuta, and believed to have died instantly at the time the car was buried. Their bodies have now been recovered, and the rescue effort brought to a close.

As I sat down today to make a jack-o-lantern with my daugther for the upcoming Halloween holiday, the reality that tomorrow is never guaranteed to any of us, and that any moment could be your last really set in on me. Life, family, happiness and health can be torn away from you at any moment for absolutely any reason whatsoever. Please try to live your life and deal with those you love as if your bonds exist only until the next fleeting moment comes, and hopefully goes.

Little Yuta is doing well in hospital and has made it through the dangerous period of prolonged dehydration, and has told hospital staff that he "wants to eat watermelon" and "is sick of drinking water" and "wants some milk" and "that he loves the cartoon AnPanMan". It really wrenched my heart to hear that he mistook a nurse for his mother in his disoriented state when first brought in the hospital for emergency care.

Much has happened in the area that we love and know, and this story while still tragic, is one ray of hope and a testament to the human spirit...both in the courageous actions of the rescuers, and also demonstrated by little Yuta's will to defy all odds and survive even under conditions that most healthy adults would likely perish.

Probably the whole nation has spent the past two days glued to the television hoping and praying for all three trapped members of the Minugawa family to emerge from the wreckage alive, but there is only one that will rest his eyes tonight in the loving presence of his understandably distraught father.

My heart and prayers go out to little Yuta and I salute his determination to survive against all odds in spite of the loss of his mother and sister. It is my sincerest hope and wish that he and his father will be able to regain some semblance of a normal life and find happiness again some day after the mourning passes.

God bless you brave little boy...you will be in the prayers of many, many people tonight.