Above the hill, outside the Japanese city of Utsuchi, is a telephone room decorated with glass panels and equipped with a black telephone that is not connected to any wires. Since the tragic tsunami of 2011, which has killed some 20,000 people, thousands of Japanese have visited the kiosk to "talk" with their loved ones in an attempt to deal with their plight.
The kiosk is known as the "wind telephone" and was actually put in place a year before the tsunami disaster hit Japan's Tohoku coast in 2011. Itamar Sasaki, a resident of Utsuchi, lost his cousin in 2010 and decided to build a telephone booth in his garden at the top So that he could "communicate" with his dear relative, which was considered a way of dealing with deep grief. Sasaki uses his old cousin's phone number on the kiosk outside the service, with the wind moving his words. Although no one answered him, the "phantom" connection made Sasaki feel "deeper" in his cousin.
In the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami, the Japanese youth opened the "wind telephone" to the public, allowing members of the community to express their grief at the loss of loved ones. This method of treatment has spread to the loss of loved ones all over Japan, and thousands of people from outside Otsuchi have begun to visit the place. It is estimated that more than 10,000 people visited the wind telephone in the three years following the natural disaster that shook Japan, and many have been doing therapeutic rituals every year since then.
"The phone is not connected, but people feel that their missing loved ones are listening to the other end of the line," Sasaki said. "I want people to resume their lives as soon as possible by expressing their feelings."