After a joyful reunion with her son, the mother of an Eastern Michigan University alumnus who was missing after the destructive 8.9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, said her family is overjoyed.
Monday morning, 2010 EMU graduate Paul Fales’ safety and location was still unknown to his worried family. Mary Fales, Paul’s mother, said she had been in contact with CNN and anchor Anderson Cooper’s producer earlier in the day. Fales said the producer had seen some traffic about her son on various social media sites and called her to prepare to put together a missing person story.
“I sent background information for Mr. Cooper to talk about on the air,” Fales said. “They knew they would have a reporter in Kesennuma. While we were talking to the producer and setting up the phone conference we were going to have with Cooper, there was a voicemail message from Paul.”
Fales said she immediately told CNN her family had heard from Paul. CNN told her to stay on the line, while they tried to locate Paul and their reporter, Soledad O’Brien.
“They had been trying to reach their reporter all day and Mr. Finley [the producer] said just as he was on the phone with us, she called and said she had found Paul,” Fales said.
Fales said she considers finding Paul a “miracle” and it wouldn’t have been possible without the help of so many concerned individuals.
“It is very good news for us,” she said. “We are so grateful for our friends and family — both in the U.S. and Japan — for reaching out and continuing to try all different kinds of social media to get word to Paul. There were Twitter feeds in English and Japanese. Facebook stuff just kept coming. We’ve never worked with Facebook, it was a brand new medium for us.”
Fales said the various social media sites and media outlets aided in locating her son.
“I don’t think we would have been able to connect with Anderson Cooper in Japan or the contacts we had in national media, like Good Morning America, if it hadn’t been for some of this traffic online and the wonderful story the Echo wrote,” Fales said. “Especially with the fact the phone lines were down and the little contact people in northern Japan has with others.”
Fales said even when her family first learned of the tsunami and earthquake and couldn’t reach Paul, she remained hopeful and optimistic.
“We heard the tsunami had come in so far,” she said. “We just hoped and prayed he was able to get to safe ground. We had positive thoughts the entire time.”
Fales said the city of Kesennuma is absolutely devastated.
“Obviously, you could see the devastation in Kesennuma behind Paul[during CNN’s broadcast],” she said. “I know that the reporter who was with Paul had actually walked through the city with him. They don’t have electricity yet and they still need water and other supplies. The conditions in the city are still grave.”
The exact condition of her son’s apartment is not known yet, but Fales said she isn’t sure if it could withstand the force of the tsunami because of a report she heard detailing a neighbor of Paul’s frightening ordeal.
“I do know from the Japanese national newspaper reports that someone who lived on Minatomachi had said that she was in higher ground and couldn’t see where her house was — it was underwater,” she said.
Even in the middle of all of the chaos and the potential loss of belongings, Paul is still doing what he loves — teaching English to Japanese children. Fales said her son has begun teaching his students in one of the gymnasiums where many displaced individuals currently reside.
“He started teaching English,” Fales said. “His class came up to him and he started teaching.”
The various offices of the Japanese Exchange Program are busy trying to locate everyone, Fales said.
“JET is still looking for personal confirmation of someone from Ireland,” she said. “He had called his family two hours after the tsunami hit to say he was safe. I know from talking to the JET office in New York that they’re doing everything they can to find the missing.”
Fales said her son has always been interested in the Japanese culture and he was determined to make it to Japan.
“Paul was a big anime fan,” Fales said. “I know he participated at some events when he was at Eastern. When he was in high school, the anime got him interested in applying to a program. He was selected to be a foreign exchange student, and he spent time there with a host family and came back very enthused.
Fales said her son’s high school didn’t teach Japanese, but that didn’t stop him — he began to teach himself.
“He took classes when he got to Eastern and he has continued even after he graduated to study Japanese,” she said.
After he completes the JET program, Fales said her son plans to come back to the United States for graduate studies.
“He’s interested in working with the Foreign Service in Asia, particularly in Japan,” she said. “He’s had such a wonderful experience. He kept in contact with all of the good people he met there and he spoke so highly of the warmth of everyone in Japan.”
Touched by the outpouring of support from the Eastern community, Fales said her entire family is appreciative.
“We just want to thank the entire Eastern Michigan University community for all of their support in many ways,” Fales said. “We really appreciate everything that they have done, both for Paul and the other individuals who have suffered so much.”
