Families fly in to pray and find answers

OLIVIA CARVILLE

About 100 Japanese mourners will fly to Christchurch to mark the first anniversary of the February earthquake and seek legal action over the failed Canterbury Television building that killed 28 of their country's students.

The grieving family members will make the 12-hour flight to New Zealand next month to attend the first anniversary memorial service, stand at the site where their loved ones died, and consider legal action over their deaths.

Twenty-eight Japanese students were killed on February 22 when the CTV building collapsed.

The students, ranging in age from 19 to 61, were studying English at the King's Education language school on the third floor.

The Japanese suffered the second-highest death toll behind Kiwis in the quake.

Twelve of the 28 students were on a three-week exchange from the Toyama College of Foreign Languages in Japan and had arrived in Christchurch on February 19.

They had been home- staying with families around the city.

Toyama College president Hisao Yoshida will travel to New Zealand with more than 40 of the dead students' family members.

Speaking from Japan, he said he was making the trip to "mourn for our deceased students on behalf of our school and Toyama City".

"For me personally, the anniversary is a chance to be with our beloved students in my heart and tell them they are always in my heart," he said.

"It is a chance to pledge to them that wishes and dreams will live on in the hearts of their friends and juniors."

Yoshida said that while they were in Christchurch, the family members wanted to thank the Christchurch families who had hosted their loved ones on the last night of their lives, and visit the CTV site, "where they took their last breath".

"They want to feel as if they were beside them and talk to them, though it is very unbearable to them," he said.

"It is a chance to make a resolution that we will overcome our despair and take a step forward as a school."

The families also want to meet the royal commission and discuss their concerns about the CTV building, Yoshida said.

One of the family members, Naohiro Kanamaru, who lost 19-year-old daughter Kayo Kanamaru, said the group wanted to discuss legal aspects of the building's collapse.

If someone was found liable for the building's collapse, he said, the group would sue.

Over the past year, Kanamaru said, it had been unbearable for the Japanese victims' families because they were so far away from the disaster and had to battle language barriers for any information.

"They have been in deep sorrow. The sadness does not go away and feels worse day by day," he said through a relative. "The tragedy happened so far away from where we last saw our children. It is still very hard for the families to understand they won't be able to see their children any more."

Family members representing the other 16 Japanese students who died in the quake will also honour their loved ones at the service.

A spokesman from the Japanese embassy expected about 100 mourners to arrive in Christchurch next month to mark the first anniversary.

Christchurch man David Bolam-Smith has commissioned a kahikatea memorial sculpture from Japanese donations to give the grieving family members a place to mourn and pray while they are in the city.

The sculpture will be unveiled on February 22 at the Christ's College chapel.

- © Fairfax NZ News