Calif. students reunite tsunami-launched boat with Japanese town

CRESCENT CITY, Calif. -- On California's rugged, rocky north coast, the small boat that washed ashore at Crescent City last spring started something big.

That reason would become clear to Bill Steven and his son John: the boat came here to unite two towns.

"It was definitely mind blowing, thinking that this boat traveled upside down two years all the way across the ocean to get here," John Steven says.

"The boat was one of the few remaining things that had survived," student Griffin Walker says. "It was a big symbol of hope for them, and we wanted to give it back to them."

Through fundraisers, the students generated enough support to get the boat back to Japan - and even raised enough money to go themselves. Last month, they traveled to Rikuzentakata and were welcomed as heroes.

"I think when we all saw the cameras, we realized how big it actually was over there," John Steven says.

In 2011, the same earthquake that created the Japanese tsunami sent a wall of water crashing through Crescent City's harbor, destroying boats and docks. And in 1964, much of Crescent City was destroyed by a tsunami.

"There was a reason it was here, because I believe things don't happen just because," Ruiz says.

Perhaps because this is a town that understands.