. >> hiroyuki is one of them.born to a family that had been fishing for more than 100 years. before the earthquake he would go out in his boat. the flags are used to decorate fishing vessels. so when the boats were lost in the tsunami, the flags had nowhere to fly. he said he found his flag in front of his home which had flooded. >> translator: they were here. >> reporter: his mother cocoa set out to rescue them. she carefully cleaned each flag and kept them until giving them to tanaka. cocoa passed away two years ago. she never spoke about her reaso reasons for donating the flags. he thinks she did it so they would be seen again. >> translator: it's a flag. it's supposed to be seen by lots of people. that will make the flag happy. people will see how beautiful it is. >> reporter: he rebuilt his boat two years after the quake. he decorated it with a new tairyo-bata. it became an inspiration to others along the coast. tanaka is still doing his part carefully giving the donated flags new life. >> translator: i reali