Tsunami memories go back to 1933

OFUNATO - Teru Suzuki, 86, says only "destiny" kept her alive after last week's magnitude-9 earthquake triggered the third big tsunami in her lifetime to level her quiet fishing town in northeastern Japan.

Suzuki is one of a handful of elderly people in the area who have rebuilt lives after a magnitude 8.1 quake in 1933, a tsunami from the magnitude-9.5 Chilean earthquake in 1960 and a naval attack in the last days of World War II.

Relaxing in her living room when the latest earthquake struck, she didn't think much of the tsunami warning on television until her son, who had climbed up a hill to check the coast, ran back to tell her that a huge wave was coming.