US rescue team: Search for poet who went missing on Japanese island more than week ago to end

Search for missing poet in Japan down to final day

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The search for an acclaimed poet who went missing on a small Japanese island more than 10 days ago will end Friday, an American search-and-rescue team coordinator said.

Craig Arnold, a University of Wyoming assisant professor who’s been working on a book about volcanoes, went missing April 26. He was hiking on a volcano on the island of Kuchinoerabu-jima, which is about 30 miles off the Coast of Japan’s southern Kyushu island.

Four Americans from a nonprofit search-and-rescue organization, 1st Special Response Group, joined a handful of Japanese who were still searching for Arnold. The American team committed to search through Friday, Japan time, before they had to head home.

“It’s not ideal that we’re leaving now. We certainly hope that we can resolve it in one way or another today,” said David Kovar, founder of the California-based 1st Special Response Group.

The team had dramatically reduced the size of the search area, he said.

“We know where he last was and the direction of travel,” Kovar said. “It gives us a great deal of confidence that something should be resolved today — or if not today, then local resources can continue to work it.”

The team reported picking up Arnold’s trail near a crater at the volcano’s peak and following it downhill to an area with deep ravines. On Thursday, they determined that Arnold went into the rough terrain.

Arnold, 41, is the author of two award-winning books of poetry. He was in Japan through the U.S.-Japan Friendship Commission’s Creative Artists Exchange Fellowship.