Thread by @Reuters

Kazuyoshi Sasaki carefully dials his late wife Miwako's cellphone number, bending his large frame and cradling the handset.

He explains how he searched for her for days after the devastating earthquake and tsunami a decade ago reut.rs/2MN1vnC

He visited evacuation centers and makeshift morgues before returning at night to the rubble of their home.

'When I came back to the house and looked up at the sky, there were thousands of stars, it was like looking at a jewel box,' the 67-year old says

Sasaki's wife was one of more than 20,000 people in northeastern Japan killed by the disaster that struck on March 11, 2011.

Many survivors say the unconnected phone line in the town of Otsuchi helps them keep in touch with their loved ones

The phone booth was built by Itaru Sasaki, who owns the garden in Otsuchi, a town some 500 km northeast of Tokyo, a few months before the disaster, after he lost his cousin to cancer

The phone now attracts thousands of visitors from all over Japan.

It is not only used by tsunami survivors, but also by people who have lost relatives to sickness and suicide.

Dubbed 'the phone of the wind,' it recently inspired a film

Like thousands of others in devastated coastal communities, Kazuyoshi Sasaki lost not only his wife but many other relatives and friends in the disaster.

Read his full story reut.rs/2MN1vnC by 📷 Issei Kato and ✍️ @saitomri