The Wind Phone

windy    tsunami    ones    coastal     wind    nature      extreme        struck   aftermath   forces

When an earthquake and tsunami 1. ____ Japan in 2011, 30ft (9.14m) waves obliterated 2. _____ communities. The small town of Otsuchi lost everything including 2000 residents.

One resident, Itaru Sasaki, was already grieving his cousin before the 3. ______ hit. He had the idea of nestling an old phone booth on the 4. ______ hill at the bottom of his garden which overlooked the Pacific Ocean. This would be a place he could go to speak to his cousin - a place where his words could ‘be carried on the 5. _____.’ The white, glass-paned booth holds an old disconnected rotary phone. He called it his Wind Phone.

In the 6. _____ of the terrible tsunami, as word of the phone spread, it became a pilgrimage site for those who had lost loved ones. In the sanctuary of the booth they would dial old phone numbers and talk to their loved 7. ____.

In many ways the wind phone typifies a very Japanese relationship with 8. _____ and death and with the invisible 9. ____ that connect us all. As the residents of Otsuchi face the slow progress of rebuilding their town and the frightening reality of future 10. ______ weather, the wind phone is a reminder of those losses that won’t be forgotten.

Video (3:33 min)

Podcast (26:30 min)

The Wind Phone