A 47-year-old woman from?Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, who survived the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake?when she was pregnant?has felt nothing but gratitude over the past 15 years.

¡°I can lead a life now because we were saved then,¡± said Asami Kurihara, whose son, Yuto Kurihara, who just turned 15.

When the earthquake hit, Kurihara, then pregnant with Yuto, became trapped?between pieces of fallen furniture with her then-2-year-old daughter, but they were later rescued.