Family continues search for Japanese boy who sent message in bottle

KUALA LUMPUR: The son of Zulkafli Abd Razak, who found a 10-year-old message in a bottle on Pantai Ma' Daerah in 1999, is planning a trip to Tanegashima, Japan, to trace its sender, Kowaki Yohei.

Zulkafli's third child, Shafura Zulkafli, 33, said her brother travels to Japan almost every year, mainly to Osaka and Tokyo, and has been trying to locate Yohei during his trips.

"My brother told us he tries to track down Yohei every time he goes to Japan, almost every year," she said.

Shafura said her brother currently has only the email address of Yohei's former primary school and has yet to contact the institution for further information.

"If he manages to trace Yohei, he plans to travel there and perhaps make a video documenting the journey until they meet, just as a keepsake," she said.

She said his main aim was to return the original letters and other items to Yohei, allowing him to reconnect with the memories and history that began with the message in a bottle.

The family has no recent information about Yohei's whereabouts or well-being.

Shafura, the third of six siblings, said she had only faint memories of meeting Yohei in 1999 as she was six years old at the time.

"When I was young, I wondered who Yohei was. But after our meeting in Terengganu, he visited our home and appeared on television. Only then did I learn the full story and realise that my father was the one who found the bottle," she said.

Zulkafli, who was 36 at the time, was participating in a conservation programme organised by the Turtle Sanctuary Centre, the Fisheries Department, BP Petronas Acetyls (BPPA), the Menyemai Kasih Rakyat Kerteh non-governmental organisation, the Fisheries Development Authority of Malaysia, the Kemaman District Council and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Inside the bottle, he found an origami crane, a map marking Tanegashima Island in southern Japan, and two letters — one in English and another in Japanese.

The English letter, titled "Message from Nishino" and dated Oct 2, 1989, was written by Nishino Primary School principal Nakamura Koichi. It explained that 117 bottled messages had been released into the ocean.

The Japanese letter was written by six-year-old Primary One pupil Kowaki Yohei.

Zulkafli sent a letter and a hand-drawn map of the discovery site to the school principal via international courier on May 23, 1999. BPPA also worked through the BP Amoco network in Japan to trace the former principal and student.

The efforts paid off, with Zulkafli receiving replies from the school's current principal and students.

Yohei, then 16 and a high school student, later wrote back on Oct 2, 1999, expressing his delight that his message had reached Malaysia a decade after it was released.

Zulkafli and Yohei met on Aug 24, 1999, in Kuala Lumpur.

Twenty-seven years on, Zulkafli said they had since lost touch because he had forgotten to obtain Yohei's permanent address.