A Floating Car Is Born From the Carnage of Japan’s Tsunami

Hideo Tsurumaki watched the giant tsunami waves crash onto Japan’s northeast coast on March 11, 2011, sweeping away cars filled with people trying to escape.

As the vehicles sank slowly into the sea, Tsurumaki thought about his mother, who lives by the ocean in another earthquake-prone part of the country. She has difficulty walking, like many of those who tried to flee by car that day. And he thought that if the cars had been able to float, fewer people would have perished.