A YouTube video helped a Japanese exchange student from California to find out about her family who lives in a Japanese fishing village that got destroyed by the tsunami.

     Akiko Kosaka, a current student at University of California at Riverside, comes from Minamisanriku, a Japanese fishing village which got destroyed by the tsunami that resulted from an earth quake 2 weeks ago. More than half of the 17,000 people in this village are missing. "I didn't think they survived," told Kosaka, 20, to CNN, "I cried for three days.”

     After a couple of days, Kosaka received a message of a 45 seconds YouTube video which shows her sister standing on the family’s home balcony with a sign that says in Japanese “We are all safe.”  Kosaka couldn’t believe what she just found out through the internet."I screamed, and my host parents woke up and they thought it was really bad," said Kosaka, "They asked what happened. And I said, 'They survived!'" 

     Nevertheless, Kosaka was still shocked about the video. She believed that the area she lives in would have been saved, but all houses next to her house were destroyed by the tsunami.

     NH Exchange student Hana Krestanova from Czech Republic said she would be really upset and feel sorry for the people who lost their relatives if she would be in the same situation. “I would immediately try to contact my family and see if everything is okay,” she said.

     Now Kosaka tries to respond to her family in Japan through the media. "My older sister, Shoko, I saw your video. Thank you very much for being alive. It made me really happy that you are worried about me even in this tough situation,” she said in Japanese through a CNN news crew.

     The image of her sister standing on the balcony touches Kosaka a lot. "Maybe she tries to stay strong for my family. So I'm very proud of her," she said.