MITOYO, Kagawa Prefecture–A tile-roofed, white-walled building on a small islet in the Seto Inland Sea offers a place where people can stay “in touch” with their deceased loved ones.

The building is home to the “Missing Post Office,” which receives mail mainly from people who are not ready or willing to say their final goodbyes.

The Missing Post Office sits on Awashima island, a 15-minute boat ride from Mitoyo. It stands a short walk from the island’s port in hopes of acting like a beach where letters to unknown addresses are “washed ashore like floats” or messages in bottles.

Katsuhisa Nakata, 89, used to head the actual postal station on the isle. The retired postmaster, inspired by the Missing Post Office’s therapeutic role that was first shown at an art festival a decade ago, now volunteers to deal with the thousands of letters and postcards that arrive.

The letters first came in 2015, and they always started with the name of a certain “daughter” and ended with “from your mother.”

‘PLEASE FORGIVE ME’

One of the early letters read: “Yesterday, your kids returned home from school, saying delightedly they got 100 on their tests. They both wanted to show the results to you first and foremost. They put and spread the tests on the home Buddhist altar in front of your photo. Please praise them from heaven.”

The letter writer spoke to her daughter, who died in her 30s, leaving behind two children, almost every day through the Missing Post Office.

“Have you enjoyed tonight’s ginger pork?” the mother asked in a letter. “I will cook your favorite, ‘chawanmushi’ egg custard, tomorrow. I will add two shrimps specially for you as you loved that seafood.”

One letter described the daughter’s children as “growing up a lot over the past year or so” but said it is “heartbreaking at times seeing their backs while they sadly sit before the Buddhist altar.”

The mother revealed her age in one letter, and a related problem.

“I have already turned 61 years old. I cannot be viewed as your kids’ mother, and I go all out with makeup before my trips to their school in hopes of looking 2 to 3 years younger.”

The mother also described a dream that awoke her one night.

“Told that you died and are no longer here, I cried out and was awakened by my own shout,” she wrote. “I am sorry. I failed to protect you to the last. Please forgive me.”

Nakata could only imagine when and how the mother wrote the missives to her daughter.

“She apparently worked on the letters when she was relaxing after taking care of her daughter’s children all day long, such as having them leave for school, supplying meals to them and washing their clothing,” Nakata said.

MOVING FORWARD

After sending more than 100 letters to the Missing Post Office, the mother showed up there with her husband from the Kyushu region in southern Japan.

She told Nakata that writing and sending the letters helped her “feel a sense of peace.”

On another day, the mother sent a letter addressed to Nakata, not her daughter, at the postal station.

“I now believe that successfully raising precious kids left behind by my daughter--or her treasures--will constitute what little compensation I can offer, because I was unable to protect my daughter to the end,” the mother wrote.

“My prediction is that 15 or so years will be needed for our grandchildren to reach adulthood and live by themselves. … I will do my best so I can lead the rest of my life with my husband without regret.”

55,000 MESSAGES OVER DECADE

The Missing Post Office initially started inside the former Awashima Post Office as an art exhibit for the 2013 Setouchi Triennale festival.

Its creator, modern artist Saya Kubota, decided to turn the building into an artistic production because she liked Nakata’s private property.

Nakata, a staff member of the Awashima Post Office for 45 years, including 17 years as postmaster, was so attached to the structure that he bought and managed the abandoned building after the aging office was relocated.

He was appointed head of the Missing Post Office during the art festival.

The role of the facility was expected to end when the art festival closed. But Nakata decided to continue serving as a volunteer postmaster after the event and made the building accessible free of charge.

“This place should not have been shut down that way,” Nakata recalled.

He not only keeps letters but also welcomes visitors to the Missing Post Office. He also covers the maintenance costs of the building’s roof and floor, as well as the air conditioning.

A total of 55,000 letters and postcards have arrived at the postal station in the nearly 10 years since its introduction.

One message, to the writer’s late husband, mentions, “Our eldest daughter’s marriage is next year.”

Another letter asks the sender’s future self whether he or she has “become an elementary school teacher.”

One writer apologizes to a baby who died before delivery, citing a “failure to give birth to you.”

The addressees vary from a paramour to a fiance killed in World War II as a member of a suicide unit.

Nakata comes to the Missing Post Office every Saturday afternoon to postmark and thumb through the mail.

The Missing Post Office is open to anyone during these hours, and visitors can freely read the checked messages placed on the facility’s shelves.

Dozens of individuals turn up daily from around the world, including Europe, to peruse the writings.

Visitors are occasionally overwhelmed by emotion while reading the letters, and they break down in tears and grab Nakata's arm as soon as they spot him.

Nakata listens carefully to their views and takes photos with them.

He said the letters have stopped arriving from the mother who lost her daughter. He said that was a positive development.

“She can now do without sending out letters,” Nakata said.

He has said that he is not thinking about closing the post office because many other people are still sending their emotion-filled letters there.

“This place is for embracing and storing feelings that can be vented or shared nowhere else,” he said. “I will continue the service for as long as I can.”

Messages for delivery to the Missing Post Office should be sent poste restante to: Missing Post Office, 1317-2, Awashima, Takumacho, Mitoyo, Kagawa Prefecture, 769-1108.

For detailed information, go to (https://www.mitoyo-kanko.com/eng/facility/missing-post-office/)