In a quiet coastal town in Japan sits a telephone booth overlooking the ocean. Inside the glass panes rests a black rotary dial phone that is completely disconnected from any working network.
Despite having no active line, tens of thousands of people have traveled to this exact hilltop to pick up the receiver and speak into the void. This booth was originally built by one man seeking a private way to cope with personal loss. Months later, a catastrophic natural disaster transformed his quiet garden fixture into a global phenomenon.
Itaru Sasaki’s Private Booth in Ōtsuchi
In 2010, Itaru Sasaki lived in Ōtsuchi, a Japanese fishing village with a population of 16,000. That year, his cousin was diagnosed with stage four cancer and given three months to live. Searching for a way to process the impending loss, Sasaki placed an empty telephone booth in his garden. By December 2010, the installation was complete. He used the disconnected black rotary phone to speak his thoughts aloud, letting the wind carry his words to his departed relative.
The Destructive 2011 Tōhoku Tsunami
On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake struck the seafloor near Japan. The tremor generated tsunami waves reaching heights of 128 feet (39 meters). The rushing water flooded 217 square miles (562 square kilometers) of the Tōhoku region.
In minutes, the disaster destroyed over 120,000 buildings and caused a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which displaced 150,000 individuals. Official figures reported 19,759 deaths, with an additional 2,553 people remaining missing. The coastal town of Ōtsuchi, sitting at the base of Sasaki’s hill, was heavily destroyed.
Opening The Wind Phone To The Public
Following the tsunami, many survivors were unable to find their missing family members. Sasaki decided to open his hilltop garden to the public, inviting others to use the disconnected phone.
People traveled to the booth to speak aloud to those they lost. One visitor, Kazuyoshi Sasaki, used the phone to speak to his wife, Miwako, whom he could not locate after searching through rubble and evacuation centers. Since opening to the public, more than 30,000 visitors have traveled to the Ōtsuchi garden to pick up the receiver.
Disconnected Booths Spread Across The World
The practice of installing disconnected telephones eventually expanded beyond Japan. During the COVID-19 pandemic, sudden and widespread fatalities prompted organizers in other countries to contact Sasaki about creating their own installations.
Currently, there are more than 300 similar disconnected booths situated globally. Data maps track 265 installations across the United States alone, along with another 111 located in various other countries, all functioning exactly like the original wind phone in Ōtsuchi.