He writes, `It felt like we were in a washing machine full of dirty water.'

YOKOHAMA-The terror of being swept away in tsunami is vividly described by a father here who lost his two young children when the entire family was caught by tidal waves while vacationing in Phuket, Thailand.

In a way, Tamaki Oshima said in a letter to his children's school, being able to escort their remains back to Yokohama was his only consolation. The day after he had located his son Kai, 9, and daughter Sara, 6, Thailand decided to cremate all bodies found, identified or not. There were just too many after mammoth tidal waves from the Dec. 26 earthquake off Indonesia left more than 150,000 dead across the region.

But it was sad consolation indeed. In the letter, which school and Yokohama metropolitan education board officials released to the media, the father tells how his family was swept up in the disaster.

Everything seemed normal, he wrote, when the family left their hotel on Boxing Day and walked to the beach close by. They had heard no reports of a magnitude 9.0 Richter-scale earthquake off Indonesia or tsunami in the Indian Ocean.

``I don't remember what time it was when we were caught up in the tsunami,'' Oshima wrote. ``There were three big waves.''

He said the first wave was only 30 or 50 centimeters high, but it came in very fast. As the family fled to higher ground, a second, bigger wave, hit.

``The four of us were swept away by the second wave that reached a height of about 2 to 3 meters,'' Oshima wrote. ``It felt like we were in a washing machine full of dirty water. We were thrown against trees and we struggled desperately in the direction of whatever light we could barely make out from the dirty water.''

Oshima said his wedding ring and his watch were torn off as he fought to escape the raging torrent, finally emerging about 800 meters from where he was standing when the wave hit.

He said he and his wife, Noriko, were rescued in separate locations after the second tsunami settled. The third tsunami crashed into the spot on higher ground where he had found safety. The waves rose 1 to 2 meters more, almost dragging him under again.

``I had climbed up an electric utility pole, but the water reached just below my feet,'' Oshima wrote. ``After about an hour passed, I met up with my wife at our hotel.''

The Oshimas were taken to a hospital so their injuries could be treated.

On Dec. 27, they contacted the Japanese Embassy for help in locating their children. They also asked hotel staff to assist.

The Oshimas had the awful task of identifying the bodies of their children on Dec. 28. Oshima said he found Kai's body and that a search party found Sara.

Oshima wrote that while he had hoped to find his two children sooner, he was at least consoled by the fact he knew by Dec. 28 what had happened to his precious offspring.(IHT/Asahi: January 7,2005)