Phone booth in garden helps bereaved 'talk' to victims of 2011 disasters
OTSUCHI, Iwate – A gardener in this 2011 tsunami-ravaged town built a phone booth on a hill for people who lost their loved ones in the disaster, providing them with a place to mourn.
Itaru Sasaki, 69, built a wooden-framed phone booth in his garden about a month after the March 2011 disaster and placed inside it a black rotary dial telephone whose line is not connected. Even though almost three years have passed since the devastating event, people from various places still come to use the phone.
Sasaki named the booth “Kaze no denwa” (the phone of the wind) as he hoped visitors would find comfort in thinking that the wind was delivering their messages to their loved ones. The disconnected phone allows visitors to have a conversation with their deceased family members or friends in their heart. They leave their messages on a notebook that is left in the phone booth.
“Where are you, mother? I’m sorry I was not a good child. I miss you,” one person wrote in the notebook.
Most visitors who come to Sasaki’s garden enter the booth alone, even when they come in groups – with their families, spouses or friends.
Sasaki lost his father when he was 18 and had worked at a steel manufacturer in Kamaishi ever since to support the family. After taking early retirement, he worked at a local firm and had lived a quiet life, spending time on his hobby, gardening, before the disaster.
“I flattered myself thinking that I had made it on my own,” Sasaki recalled.
The disaster, however, changed his life completely. Sasaki realized that his life was possible because of the people and the environment around him.
After completing the phone booth, Sasaki called for visitors in his blog and over 10,000 people have come to the booth in three years. While it has become something of a tourist attraction, those who are still searching for their missing families come to use the phone. They tell Sasaki that they don’t know what to do, being unable to even register a notice of death for their family members.
“There are still a lot of people whose time has stopped since the disasters. I hope the phone booth would help them move on,” Sasaki said.
Last month, a picture book titled “Kaze no denwa,” a story based on Sasaki’s phone booth, was released (published by Kin no Hoshi Co.). It is a story about a rabbit, fox and cat that call their families they no longer can see in the phone booth.
“I would be happy if visitors who read the book come to the phone booth and create a community among themselves,” Sasaki commented.
March 03, 2014(Mainichi Japan)
