U.S. Poet Reported Missing in Japan
Posted on May 1, 2009
American poet and author Craig Arnold, 41, has gone missing during an expedition to a tropical Japanese island. Arnold is an assistant professor of English at the University of Wyoming and was doing research for his new book on volcanoes when he went missing on the island of Kuchinoerabu-jima in Southern Japan.
Japanese law only requires authorities to look for missing people for three days but University of Wyoming officials say the search has been extended through Sunday. Arnold went for a hike up the volcano around mid-afternoon Monday, shortly after arriving at the island by ferry and checking in at an inn, according to his brother, Chris Arnold, of Brooklyn, N.Y.The island's terrain makes helicopter searches impractical, so they are using teams to search the island on foot. Arnold has two award-winning poetry collections, Shells and Made Flesh. He is an experienced hiker, traveler and amateur vulcanologist. We hope they find him soon.When Arnold hadn't returned by 8 p.m., the inn staff went looking for him. They reported him missing at 9 p.m., and a formal search began that night. Forty people, dogs and a helicopter joined the following day's search. Police reported finding Arnold's tracks on a trail up the volcano but they couldn't find any tracks coming down. The island is about 11 kilometres long by about five wide and dominated by an 550-metre volcano that last erupted in 1980.
Dense vegetation covers much of the island but the area near the caldera, the volcanic crater, is bare. Japanese authorities speculate that after emerging at the top, Arnold may have had difficulty finding the trail again to get back down the volcano, Chris Arnold said.