Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Hope service for Japanese victims will give peace

Updated at 9:33 pm on 21 February 2012

The organiser of a service to remember the Japanese students who died in last February's earthquake says he hopes the victims' families who attend will leave Christchurch with a sense of peace.

Twenty-eight Japanese students died in the CTV building last year. A service for them is being held at Christ College Chapel at 4.30pm on Wednesday.

Organiser David Bolam-Smith says he expects more than 200 people to attend, including about 90 family members of the victims as well as the homestay families with whom the students stayed .

Mr Bolam-Smith, who hosted a Japanese student who survived the CTV collapse, says he hopes the service brings healing to the Japanese families and to the homestay families.

He says the service will be conducted in both English and Japanese, so the families will feel included.

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