Survivors call shed loves on the telephone of the wind
In a garden on a hill, under the wide boughs of a cherry tree, a white phone booth glistens in the first spring light. Inside, Kazuyoshi Sasaki carefully dials his overdue wife Miwako's cellphone amount, bending his large frame and cradling the handset.
He explains how he sought out her for days following the devastating earthquake and tsunami a decade ago, traveling to evacuation centres and makeshift morgues, returning during the night to the rubble of their house."Everything happened in an instant, I can't forget it even now," he says, weeping. "I sent you a note letting you know where I was, but you didn't check it."
"When I returned to the home and appeared up at the sky, there have been thousands of superstars, it was like looking at a jewel box," the 67-year old says. "I cried and cried and knew then that so many people must have passed away." Sasaki's wife was one of nearly 20,000 people in northeastern Japan killed by the disaster that struck on March 11, 2011.Various survivors say the unconnected phone line on the city of Otsuchi helps them talk to their loved ones and gives them some solace as they grapple with their grief.
Earlier in the day, Sachiko Okawa calls Toichiro, her late spouse to whom she was first married for 44 years. She asks him what he is doing with his times since he was swept away by the tsunami ten years ago."I'm lonely," she says finally, her voice cracking, and asks Toichiro to watch over their family group. "Bye for now, I'm going to be back soon."
