Located on the Sanriku coast, Otsuchi was devastated by the March 2011 tsunami. In the town, 1285 people died or went missing, about 10 per cent of its population. Forty people, including the mayor, died in the former town office.

In late 2013, Sasaki found this message: "Come home soon. From your father, mother and grandparents."

He eventually met the family who had written it and learned the story. They were looking for their son, who had gone missing in the disaster. After graduating from university, their son had started working at an IT firm and was visiting Otsuchi on a business trip when the disaster struck.

Reflecting on memories

The mother revealed her feelings to Sasaki, saying: "I have no idea what I've been doing since that moment. Time has stood still for me since that day."

Sasaki said messages in the notebooks have changed as time has passed since the disaster. People have started to accept the deaths of their loved ones, writing things such as "Please watch over us from heaven."

In addition to people lost to the earthquake and tsunami, families who lost a loved one in an accident or from suicide are also coming to the garden to reflect on their memories of that person.


One morning in early July, I visited the garden to find a photo in the telephone booth in which an apparently foreign man is smiling at someone. I felt like a "caller" had just had a conversation with him.

The phone has become known even overseas, and there are messages in the notebooks recalling people lost abroad.

Waves from a tsunami hit homes after the powerful earthquake in Natori in March 2011. AP

On Tuesday, Sasaki's book titled Kaze no Denwa – Daishinsai Kara Rokunen, Kaze no Denwa wo Tooshite Mieru Koto (The phone of the wind – what I have seen via the phone in the six years since the earthquake) was published in Japan by Kazama Shobo.

"The telephone is not connected, but people feel like their lost loved ones are there listening on the other end of the line," Sasaki said. "I want people to resume their lives as soon as possible by expressing their feelings."