Christchurch remembers quake dead

WELLINGTON — More than 10,000 New Zealanders and 90 people from Japan, some teary eyed, stood in silence at a Christchurch park Wednesday while police officers and firefighters read out the names of all 185 people who died in a devastating earthquake one year ago.

In mourning: Japanese relatives on Wednesday visit the site of a collapsed building where many of their kin died when an earthquake hit Christchurch a year ago. KYODO

The reading was followed by two minutes of silence at 12:51 p.m., the minute the magnitude 6.1 quake struck. It destroyed thousands of homes and much of downtown Christchurch, causing $25 billion in damage by the government's estimate.

The ceremony at North Hagley Park, which included speeches and songs, was part of a day of remembrance taking place across the country. Police spokesman Stephen Hill said the emergency services representatives who read the names had been involved in rescue efforts.

Family and friends of 24 of the 28 Japanese victims, who all died when the CTV building collapsed, were among the participants in a government-sponsored ceremony and offered a moment of silence.

They also went to the site of the collapsed building, most of them apparently for the first time, and offered flowers and took photos at the site, which is still closed to prevent another possible disaster during aftershocks.

At a press conference held in the city, Masatsugu Yokota, 56, who lost his daughter, Saki, 19, from Toyama College of Foreign Languages in Toyama Prefecture, said he felt at the site that his daughter "must have felt pain."

"I was full of resentment about what happened to the building," he also said.