that when i die, that i was happy. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline."ng >> everything just began to shake. just kept asking, where is she? have you seen her? i wouldn't know what i'd do without her. >> it s looked like the world w sending. >> growing up in indiana, tsunamis and earthquakes are things that you only see in hollywood films. >> he was sure his world had ended. the love of his life was missing. >> that feeling that she is not all right began growing as each minute went by.

>> strangers in a strange land, they had fallen in love. then the quake hit and all he knew wasat her town was gone. >> hell or high water, i was getting into that damn town. >> and that's where he headed, right into that hell, willing to risk his life to try to save hers. >> fires on the hill. fire on the water. >> but could he get there in time? >> i never loved someone the way i loved georgia. >> welcome to "dateline." it's an epic love story. a young man from small town indiana heads to japan to teach. there he meets a beautiful woman from a land nearly as far away and they fall in love, but soon this young couple finds themselves in the middle of one of the biggest natural disasters in recent memory. with whole towns being wiped

out, would they survive? here's keith morrison with swept away. >> who can say what lux olurks past the horizon, waiting impersonally, utterly at random as thousands of lives tick to their unknowing end and simple coincidences. a young man from middle america made a single decision. could you imagine back there in indiana you're about to make your life flip on its head? >> no, never. >> how could he know that on the othersa identiside of the world woman made exactly the same decision? or that they'd meet practically on the eve of one of the biggest natural disasters in recent memory. or how could he know that in the middleci of disaster he'd lose her? >> i wouldn't know what i'd do without her.

>> so coincidence, love, disaster, there is no fairness about these things. they just are. zac brown had n turned 23 in 20. h had just picked up a degree of history in indiana. no idea what to do next. he saw an offer for a job in japan. a two-year stint teaching english to elementary school kids. no japanese language skills required. why japan of all places? >> i don't think there is any rhyme or reason to it. ihe think it was just offered t me and i jumped on it. >> thena town they sent him to town is a long, long way from nashville. nashville, indiana. on sundays he skiepd with his parents, john and terry. parents, john and terry. john is a terry is a school guidance counselor. how did he seem to be doing?

>> it was rough at first. the language thing was the big thing. >> you were a stranger in a strange land? >> yeah. >> was it a lonely feeling? >> yeah, it was. it was made better bywa the fac that there were other foreign teachers in town. >> along with the teachers, there was one other person, a volunteer who helped the foreign teachers adjust. a local english-speaking businessman named kenji hariama. kenji an accomplished guitarist found out that zack was, too. >> i love his songs. also he play guitar very well. >>ui kenji pulled out an old gibson, handed it to zack. >> he said consider it yours while you're here. >> zack took that guitar to school, trying to break the ice. >> i would play music for them. i think that that kind of helped break down that barrier a bit.

weeks in, overwhelmed by home t sibnesck conditions, called his parents. >> i was actually crying and i said to him, you know, i can't do this anymore. i want a to come home. >> and we said, no, you made a commitment. you're aav man. you gave your word. >> how hard was it to say that? >> it was really hard. >> and i may have probably hung up the phone a bit angry because it wasn't the answer i wanted to get. in retrospect, i am glad. >> he tried to make it work. one night when the teachers got together there was someone new. another teacher just returning from a sunny vacation. >> there wasgr this beautiful t georgia coming back from croatia. >> 23-year-old georgia robinson, a recent university graduate a recent university graduate herself from new she had been teaching and living in a nearby town on the coast called noda. in october, they all went to a karaoke bar. >> i found out she was a huge

fan of kiss. so, you know, myself loving rock and roll, that sparked my interest. >> did it seem to be the same the other way around? >> well, no, actually, because i didn't hear anything from her after that night. >> no idea that back in new zealand georgia's cousin chelsea started hearing about a guy named zack. >> she said he was really outgoing and really nice person who was, interested in all the same sort of things th. they liked the same music and movies. >> then a few weeks later she called him. there they are practices for the teachers dance performance. >> from then on we ended up spending progressively more and more time together. >> it was a happier young man who went home to indiana for christmas. zackt, introduced his parents t georgia, sort of. >> i met her on skype. bless her heart, she had the

flu. she had her bathrobe on and was not feeling well. what a way to meet us. >> what didth you think about ts relationship with a girl so far away. >> we were grateful he had someone to spend time with. >> i was talking to my mom and she is like, so you really care for georgia, don't you? i was like, yeah. my mom got a bit choked up and said, what happens if you move to new zealand? i had to assure my mother and say,he that's never going to happen, mom. >> come january zack was eager to get back to jan. friday, march 11, 2011, the day before hisbirt father's birthda >> i actually spent a lot of the day writing my dad a nice big birthday email. i hit send on that email and was talking to georgia on gmail chat. i will see you after this rehearsal, and boom.

everything just began to shake. iin was in an office chair with wheels. so immediately as it started the chairs just kind of began to slide. things began falling off the shelves. >> zack had never been in an earthquake, but his co-workers knew this one was big. worried that the building might collapse they ran downstairs and out to the parking lot. but soon they were told it was okay. it was over. but when the shaking stopped, the disaster was just beginning. there was a monster out there over the horizon called fate, and it was coming very fast. almost as soon as zack got back to his desk warning sirens went off and even zack knew what that meant. and if the tsunami was heading to his town of kuji two miles inland, what was it going to do on the coast in noda where georgia was?na

>> what had happened to georgia? had anyone survived the tsunami? coming up, zack knew he had to find her and a world away zack's parents still hadn't found him. >> this can't be happening. are you sure it's where zack is? >> when "dateline" continues. well, not because it was easy. i mean, the game is all i know. you think back to your draft. it felt like a fantasy. but the second you know you can't compete anymore, you owe it to yourself, to your team, to find a fresh start. so, yeah, that's why i did it. that's why i walked away... from my fantasy league. (announcer) redeem your season on fanduel. play free until you win. fanduel. more ways to win. but when i started seeing i knew aboutthings,emors. i didn't know what was happening... so i kept it in. he started believing things that weren't true.

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and terry's son zac was now right in the middle of it. >> unreal. this can't be happening. are you sure it's where zac is? are you sure it's in the same region? and we were looking at maps and, you know, everything was pointing to, yeah, it's exactly where zac is. >> so we just prayed. >> enormous waves you see here were hitting noda, kuji, the towns where zac and georgia were teaching. the frantic calls began, to no avail. >> and what happened? >> it would say all circuits are busy and that you'd get a busy signal. >> and then the minutes went by and then an hour and two hours. what did that feel like? >> hell. >> as a parent you never think, oh, my child's been killed. you don't think that. you just wait.

you just wait and just pray for the best. >> and remember, zac had wanted to come home months earlier, but terri and john encouraged him to stay. how much did you beat yourself up about that? >> i did. >> seemed right then, but now? >> just the helplessness of we're way over here and there is not a thing we can do. >> georgia's family in new zealand, including cousin chelsea, were just as scared and just as helpless. >> when my friends got a text saying there hadd been a massiv tsunami in japan, obviously we all freaked out because georgia was over there. >> they turned on the tv and saw images from noda. the little coastal town where skbrorgz was based. >> it was unrecognizable from images she had sent to us. the buildings were destroyed. there was debris everywhere. >> and georgia, though they

tried and tried, was unreachable. >> we really thought that she'd gone, kind of lost hope, i guess. >> back in indiana, that night the news ever worse, john turned on his computer and read that last email from zac. >> he sent it at literally two minutes before the earthquake hit. >> what was it? >> a birthday greeting. >> that said what? >> happy birthday, love you. >> it said much more than that though. >> dearest rock and papi, happy birthday. woo-hoo, the big 5-0. the more and more time we spend apart the more i realize how amazing a father and friend you have been to me over the years and have always given me a perfect example of how a man and woman is to treat his wife. i was thinking, god, is this the last thing i hear from my son, you know? >> and it's that? >> yeah. >> saturday morning, more than

24 hours since they had had any communication from their son. >> by 8:30 and we still hadn't heard anything and still work up to even more horrible images and then had time to think about the death tolls and all that, it was just compounding and compounding and compounding. >> and then about the moment all seemed lost another email arrived. not from zac. it was from kenji, that volunteer mentor in japan. just a few words, and they meant everything. >> brandon son survived. >> what was that like? >> we wanted to know more. >> zac was alive. all they needed to know for now. but georgia still no word. well, his parents worried about him at home. zac was riding out the chaos in

kuji. >> i wasn't sure what was going on at first. >> after the shaking stopped, zac and his co-workers moved up to the top floor of the kuji city hall. a sort of crow's nest with a view of the whole city and the coastline. if something's going to happen, this is where you would see it? >> yeah. >> and then he saw it. something about the rivers that split the city and normally flow out to the sea. >> the river was beginning to flow in the opposite direction. the water began to change color. it went from a blueish color to being very murky. >> even four stories up zac could hear the roaring river. >> it went from having small debris like trees and other rubbish that was around the harbor and stuff coming into boats and to vehicles, you know. much larger and much more substantial things. >> cars and things coming along? >> yeah. >> that is getting scary then, right? >> yeah. >> of course, zac hadn't seen

the footage that everybody outside the country had seen. towns wiped off the map. thousands missing. you couldn't know how bad it was. did your mind turn at all when you were up here to what's going on down there where georgia is? >> i hoped she would be doing the same thing that i was, that she would be in a safe location. >> a safe location? was there such a thing where georgia was? as water began to recede and zac and his co-workers came downstairs, he realized everybody was incredibly quiet. >> and people's expressions had changed so drastically to looks of genuine fear. that's when i thought, you know, i, myself, was scared. >> now he understood. if the wave got as far as his town further inland, it had to have hit georgia's town right on the coast. what happened to all those people there? to georgia?

and suddenly he knew he had to find this girl. just had to. >> i wanted to see her and i wanted to comfort her as well. >> no idea what would be waiting for you at that end? >> no, not the slightest. >> there is a moment in some lives that defines everything that comes after. a test, a trial. this was zac brandon's test. to pass or fail. >> coming up. >> i never loved someone like i loved georgia. >> but sometimes love doesn't conquer all. when "dateline" continues. ♪

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[crashing] zach brandon didn't fully comprehend how bad it was. the tremendous earthquake and the deadly wall of water that followed snuffing out more than 18,000 lives. tens of thousands of homes, whole towns were being swept away. but zach didn't know that yet. >> i just wanted to find georgia, my best friend and wanted to make sure she was all right. >> he kept telling himself she was all right. noda was protected by massive concrete seawalls and barriers. so your first thought wasn't, oh god, she is in trouble? it was more, thank god there is a wall there? >> yes. yeah. it's there. there is just no possible way it could have gotten over that. >> how did you find out that you were wrong? >> well, i decided, i just left.

i left work. >> in indiana, zach's parents relieved their son was alive got another email. zach was going to look for georgia. n >> now a whole new set of concerns, like i wasn't even exactly sure where she was. so once we figured that out, we looked it up on the map. well, it wasn't far away, but we just -- >> it was closer to the coast. >> it was closer to the coast. >> wondering what he might find. >> yes. >> and he was over there by himself, you know. and what would he do if he didn't find her? it was all those things. >> zach hopped in his car and gone the eight-mile drive down the winding road from kuji to noda. >> as i come down the hill i start noticing people are walking on the side of the road. no cars. but they are just walking. whole families walking. and i just say to myself, that's odd.

that's trainistrange. as i got closer, i could see what looked like to be a house on its side just in the middle of the road. i was really confused because where were the tsunami walls? >> police had set up a barricade and beyond -- what did you see over there? >> it was just complete destruction, you know. there had been, like for a lot of the houses, they are heated with kerosene. so kerosene tanks had been knocked over throughout the tsunami. because of the downed power lines, actually sparked fires. there was fires on the hill. fire on the water. >> debris everywhere? >> yeah. so, i mean, it was just a complete scene of destruction really. >> zach, almost in shock, walked towards the barricade blocking the road. >> there was a police officer and he just said to me,

dangerous. no. and he just began kind of trying to escort me back to where i parked my car. >> he got in his car and drove back to kuji, trying to tell himself it would be okay, that georgia was fine. the scene behind the barricade was chaos, disaster. it was obvious that there were many casualties. it was pretty clear how many. it was impossible to know. zach understood as he was turned away by the guard that one person's anxiety could not be allowed to trump public safety, and yet at that very moment he understood with absolute clarity he had to find out what happened to the girl behind the barricade. he had to. if she was alive or dead or injured. had to because she was the love of his life. he sent message after message by text. >> in vain, you know, knowing they weren't going through, but just hoping. little messages of encourageage.

i love you, everything is right, i am going to come look for you. i have tried. know i'm coming. >> what were you thinking? >> i wouldn't know what i'd do without her. >> i guess that's the first time you really had to confront it in a serious way, right? >> yeah. i had never loved someone the way i loved georgia. and so i guess i just hoped that she was going to be all, you know, she was going to be fine and i was going to --

>> probably didn't sleep much that night? >> no. >> the aftershocks went on all night. so did tsunami warnings. >> so you're thinking, is there going to be another tsunami coming through? you know, it's -- so, no, i didn't sleep. >> by 5:30 a.m., he knew what he had to do. he left a note on his apartment door just in case georgia made it there. >> i said, georgia, i'm coming to look for you. if for some reason you make it into kuji, stay here. if i haven't found you by sundown, i'm coming back here. so know i'm coming back. >> then he got in his car again and headed towards the coast. >> and i just decided, literally come hell or high water, i was getting into that damn down. >> but how? he would certainly be facing

hell and high water. but perhaps the biggest problem was the japanese army blocking the road. >> coming up, was time running out for georgia? had zach lost the love of his life? >> that feeling that she is not all right, it began growing as each minute went by. >> when "dateline" continues. they say you're supposed to deny your cravings. you know what i do instead? i snack on blue diamond almonds. wasabi & soy sauce?! mmm! don't deny your cravings. eat 'em!

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president trump returned to washington just over an hour ago after the g20 summit in argentina. this headline, the president agreeing to a trade truce with china, saying that the u.s. would not increase tariffs to 25% to 10%. and former president george h.w. bush's body will lie in state monday. he died at the age of 94 monday. a national day of mourning is set for wednesday with the funeral on thursday. more news at the top of the hour. as the sun rose over the ruined coastal towns of northern japan, zach branham approached

noda determined to get past it. no idea how. >> i parked a little further out this time and started walking in, and they still had the police officers and the defense force there with their roadblock. but i noticed what looked like to be a group of locals with shovels and other gear. i'm assuming to go in and try to start clearing paths to the town. so i thought that's my way in. >> those civilian volunteers seemed to have official permission to get in and clearly knew where they were going. >> so i just pulled my hood up and hopped in line with them. at this point no one was really kind of looking around. >> he slipped past the police line, followed the group up a path away from the main road. he knew where he'd go first if he could. your first destination was her apartment? >> yes. hoping that i would find her sitting there on the floor reading the book. >> the path led up a hill past

this shrine, descended back down it a horrific scene. noda was almost unrecognizable. >> there were these massive walls of debris of these houses toppled over boats. anything you could imagine. i mean, metal, electric poles bent as if someone came through and just dunk. >> he knew georgia's place was on a hill. if she had gone there before the tsunami hit, she would be all right. but when he got there. >> no sign she was there. everything was still left exactly the way we had left it from the previous morning when we both went to work. >> as he went back outside zach could see down into the center of town. that's where georgia's office was, where she was when the earthquake hit. and what he saw chilled him to the bone. >> what i could see of the central part of the village that was so destroyed, in my mind i could not see how -- >> nobody survived in that city

building? >> well, yeah. >> shaking that from his mind, zach thought georgia might have gone to help out at one of the three schools where she taught. but when he got to the kindergarten his heart sank. >> the kindergarten was completely gone. >> wiped away? >> yeah. all that was left was a bit of the fence and some of the foundation. so -- >> a kindergarten that would have been occupied? >> i had hoped not. >> later he found out those children were safe. evacuated before the tsunami hit. but now zach went to another school, found a group of teachers huddled in their office. unable to speak japanese, he passed around georgia's business cards with her photo. >> and i went in and i just kept asking, you know, georgia, you know, where is she? have you seen her? >> they had not. but they did give zach some

hope. >> they said, go junior high. i take that as, oh, she is at the junior high. >> so zach sprinted there, made his way to the have you seen georgia? and they said they hadn't, had not seen her. and i kind of lost it a bit at that point. >> zach staggered outside, you o out of options, his despair total. what was happening in your mind? >> just feeling so lost. that feeling that i had been trying to suppress, the feeling of she is not all right. it began growing in size immensely as each minute went by. >> one of the teachers came outside to comfort him with a cup of tea. >> telling me, you know, it's okay. it's okay, it's okay.

hugging me and petting me on the back because i'm crying. yeah. >> then out of nowhere a van pulled up. two men hopped out. zach recognized one as a colleague of georgia's. they didn't look happy. zach tried to ask them. >> georgia? you know, where is she, where he is is she? they spoke no english. just pretty much like let's go, pointing to the van and pushing me into the van. >> they were taking him to city hall. as you were being driven in that van, did you have any idea what they were driving you to see? >> no. >> did you know they had been taking bodies to the city hall? >> no. >> didn't know that? >> didn't know. >> city hall had, in fact, become the temporary morgue. was that where he'd find

georgia? coming up, the news everyone had been waiting for. >> he was very brave for what he did. very brave. but you do that for people that you love. >> when "dateline" continues. jardiance asked- and now you know. jardiance is the first type 2 diabetes pill proven to both reduce the risk of cardiovascular death for adults who have type 2 diabetes and heart disease... ...and lower a1c, with diet and exercise. jardiance can cause serious side effects including dehydration. this may cause you to feel dizzy, faint, or lightheaded, or weak upon standing. ketoacidosis is a serious side effect that may be fatal.

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the most common side effect is nausea. i don't think about cigarettes anymore. talk to your doctor about chantix. keith morrison (voiceover): two men had pushed zach brennan into the back of the van, which was now making its way through canyons of urban rubble. two men had pushed zach branham into the back of a van which was picking its way through canyons of rubble apparently towards noda city hall. had zach known the place had been turned into a temporary morgue, he would have understood the looks of the meanings on their faces. the van stopped. the men got out. >> he motioned for me to stay in the van. and that was it. >> he steeled himself for whatever was coming next. what he did not expect was what he saw. >> around the corner walked out georgia. >> and i saw this baseball cap

over by a car and there he was. the last person in the world i expected to see trudging across the mud in his boots, there was zach. >> how was that? >> it was a pretty awesome moment. after the absew lawsuit insanity of the last 24 hours, it was surreal, but it was an amazing feeling at the asame time to se him there. >> hair all a bit frantic, you know, like she had no sleep like the rest of us. >> big hug, of course. >> she cried and i cried. just one of the best hugs ever, you know. knowing that she was safe. >> nice to know that somebody will go through the barricades, do whatever is needed to get to you? >> yeah. i just couldn't understand how

zach had arrived with his baseball cap in the middle of all this. it was insane. >> well, that's the way to a girl's heart? >> yeah. yeah. >> and georgia's story, well, if zach had been ringside, georgia was center stage. and although she had been through earthquakes before in new zealand, this one was much, much different. >> that's the first time i found it hard to walk or stand in an earthquake. >> still everyone around her seemed okay. she thought it was all just kind of exciting. even when the tsunami siren went off. >> i was like, oh, cool, like this is really exciting. >> but others knew better, and georgia soon learned this was very, very bad. >> i said, you need to go upstairs. so i followed everyone. we went upstairs, looked out the

window, and noda was gone. oh, my god. >> this is what georgia saw captured on her cell phone camera. much of the town of noda flowing by the window. you were standing right here, looking out there? >> that's the exact spot, yes. >> it's quite awesome. like half the town is up there. >> yeah. >> there is a roof here. >> yeah, there is a roof. there is a house wedged in under the entrance. it's been almost broken in half. >> unbelievable. and there is another house? >> yeah. >> drifted across? >> this house is not usually there. it's in the middle of the car park. >> just phenomenal. wow. she felt safe up here, somehow detached from the horror she was witnessing. and then it hit her. >> there was this moment where it was absolutely silent and you could hear a dog barking off in the distance and occasionally there would be a shout.

but other than that, it was so surreal. so silent. >> wow. >> yeah. i won't forget that moment. are water and debris almost to the second floor. no one could leave. what was that like? >> that was the worst night of my life. >> a sleepless night, huddled in her boss 'office. and the next morning a jolting aftershock and more tsunami sirens. but then zach found her, and together they looked at what was left of the town. georgia took these pictures. 38 people lost their lives in noda. a tiny percentage of the more than 18,000 who died up and down the coast. but half of noda was simply gone. >> it was like someone had just driven a bulldozer through and

it was all gone. it was how a wave can do that, i don't know. >> lifting complete houses up off their foundations. all that was left was the shell. >> the front stairs leading up to nothing. >> and then they went to the safest place they could think of. their mentor kenji's office in kuji, where the other teachers had gathered. >> you know, kenji being kenji, he found all the food that he could find in his house. anything that we could eat, which included, you know, lots of beer and sake on hand. >> and music. zach and kenji got out the guitars, tried to shut out the world. >> to kind of give ourselves some sense that everything was all right a bit, you know? >> and then cell phones chirpd back to life. >> everyone frantically had their phones out sending emails to our families to tell them, you know, we're okay.

>> back in indiana, zach's parents finally got the news they had been praying for. >> it took me hours and hours, but i found her and she is alive. and so the first thing i did was wall brenda, georgia's mom, and she was in bed. she wasn't asleep. she was trying to sleep. i said zach found her, she's alive. >> and fine. >> she screamed, started crying. >> mom came in and told me that zach had found her and that she was safe and she was alive. and it was the most amazing feeling i have ever experienced. he was very brave for what he did. very brave. but you do that for people that you love. >> the danger wasn't over, of course. we all know what came next. so you find out that he is okay. she is okay. and now what?

>> fukushima. >> coming up, a different kind of aftershock. >> he said, have you checked your email yet? and i said, no. and he said, why don't you guys look at your email together? and so i said, oh, zach, what now? >> when "dateline" continues.no? >> when "date line" continues. i. it felt like a fantasy. but the second you know you can't compete anymore, you owe it to yourself, to your team, to find a fresh start. so, yeah, that's why i did it. that's why i walked away... from my fantasy league. (announcer) redeem your season on fanduel. play free until you win. fanduel. more ways to win. 3 days is really fast. sensitivity, the dentist is going to be able to provide that to their patients. sensodyne rapid relief in my opinion is a game changer. it's going to let the dentist offer their patient sensitivity relief in 3 days.

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welcome back, i'm natalie morales. in the aftermath of japan's devastating earthquake welcome back. i'm natalie morales. in the aftermath of japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami, zach had rushed into the chaos to find his girlfriend georgia alive and well, but the couple wasn't out of danger yet. hear what the conclusion of "swept away" is keith norris. >> the fukushima nuclear disaster. the rescue efforts had been complicated by damage to a nuclear power plant. >> it filled the air waves. the pictured meltdown. nuclear armageddon.

the president was calling for americans to get out. >> yesterday we called for an evacuation of american citizens who are within 50 miles of the plant. >> we were seeing on the news it's melting down, just a matter of time, they can't stop it. >> it could affect the entire country, the entire region. >> zach had thought the worst was over. >> so you never think you'd ever experience a tsunami and earthquake and now you're experiencing a meltdown of a nuclear power plant. >> but we wanted him to come home. we wanted him -- >> yeah. >> here we were the ones saying, you have to stay, you made a commitment. >> now it's time for you to come home. >> but there was -- there was no travel, of course, anywhere. >> and zach got a call from a u.s. air force officer. >> he said, we'll take you to the air force base and we'll fly you to a safe location. >> so what did you say? >> well, i said, you know -- i actually lied and said georgia was my fiance.

i said my fiance is a new zealand citizen and we want to bring her along. >> he said, i'm really sorry, we can only offer this to u.s. citizens at this stage and, again, i can't leave her behind. >> they were 200 miles from fukushima. they began to feel the danger from the radiation where they were was subsiding so they stayed, even helped with the cleanup. and then about a month later, funny how these things go, zach and georgia got another shock. another one of those life changing developments. zach told his parents about it during one of their regular sunday phone calls. >> and he said, have you checked your e-mail yet? and i said, no. he said, why don't you guys look at your e-mail together. and so i said, oh, zach, what now? >> after all the worry and dread

they had experienced over their son's time in japan, zach branam's parents weren't quite prepared for the next bit of news. >> so we opened the e-mail and there's an ultrasound picture. >> a baby was on the way. >> we were literally speechless. one of the few times i've been speechless. >> we nick named it baby bean because it looked like a little bean. >> it just -- it felt right in a way. we were obviously -- are obviously in love and the timing wasn't amazing but it had happened so let's just go with it. >> still, there was one last step. zach hadn't been quite ready to take it before, but when he came home to indiana to see his family -- >> while i was in indiana in june my mom and my sisters went with me and we went engagement

ring shopping. >> did he intend to do that? would he have done that without a little push, do you think? >> i don't know. i know that i said, would you mary her if she wasn't expecting a baby? he said, yes. she needs to know that. she needs you to ask her to marry you and not that i'm doing the right thing. yeah, maybe i did push him. >> when zach went back to japan, he was ready. or so he thought. georgia met him at the train station. >> as we were walking to the car i don't know, i said, you just have to -- you just have to stop. >> i was like, what are you doing? it's freezing. let's get in the car. let's go. just wait. then all of a sudden he turned around and he is shaking but he's holding a ring box. >> and i for the down on my knee and i said, i love you and i

want to spend the rest of my life with you, i don't care if it's in japan, or new zealand, or if we're in siberia, i want to spend the rest of my life with you. will you marry me? >> and i said, yes, of course. i had to put him out of his misery. he looked like he was going to collapse. >> so i was engaged. we didn't know what we were going to do from there, we didn't know where we were going to go, we knew we were having a baby and we got married. >> you got married twice? >> yeah, we did. >> yes, two weddings. the first in indiana. the second one in new zealand. and there was a special guest at that one. two-month old sebastian. >> getting some good distance. >> after promising his mother it was never going to happen, sure enough, zach and his family now live in new zealand. he works for the government. georgia at a recruitment agency

and sebastian is busy growing up. in 2014 we brought them back to japan for the first time since it all happened. >> my name is georgia. >> georgia! georgia! >> this teacher and her students knew about georgia and zach. many here looked upon their story as one positive thing that came out of that horrible tragedy. do you ever -- and this is a totally unfair question. do you ever sometimes sit together at night and say to yourselves, boy, if it hadn't been for that day, would we be here? would we have sebastian? would we be in this life together? >> all the time. >> if someone would have told me three years from now you will be living in wellington. >> married to an american. >> married to a kiwi with a 2-year-old son -- >> i would have said, you're crazy. >> i would have thought they were crazy, you know?

so could have never imagined this. >> helped along by an earthquake, a tsunami and god knows what else. >> yeah. yeah. yeah. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie moralis. thank you for watching. good morning. i'm dara brown at msnbc in new york. here's what's happening. face to face, at least one critical bit of news after president trump and the leader of china met for hours trying to settle an escalating trade badle. individual one fallout from the michael cohen guilty plea. what new did we learn about the president and russia. in perfeil. could robert