Present there were Jin Kil Sang, director of the Rights and Welfare Department of the Central Standing Committee of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon), Han Jong Suk, vice-chairperson of the Central Standing Committee of the Korean Democratic Women's Union in Japan, Hwang Myong, chairman of the Tokyo Metropolitan Headquarters of Chongryon, other officials of Chongryon, Koreans in Japan and Japanese people.

The participants observed a moment silence in memory of the victims.

Read out at the service was a memorial message sent by the Association of Korean Victims of Forcible Drafting and Their Bereaved Families of the DPRK.

The message noted that more than 10 000 Koreans who were grievously killed by the air raids of U.S. forces while being subject to harsh national discrimination and slave labor after being taken away to Japan are victims of the overseas invasion by Japan and forcible drafting perpetrated by it, pursuant to its policy to exterminate the Korean nation.

However, the right-wing forces in Japan are running the whole gamut of gimmicks to justify its past war of aggression and cover up the truth behind the war crimes including forcible drafting by making profound confusing of right and wrong, far from honestly reflecting on the stark historical fact, it noted, adding:

The letter urged the Japanese authorities to kneel down before the victims who met grievous death due to Japan and beg for their pardon.

Also read out there was a memorial message sent by the south Korean committee for supporting the investigation into the damage done by forcible drafting in the period of the resistance war against Japan and its overseas victims.

Speeches were made by the representative of the Tokyo Ward Assemblymen's Liaison Society for the Promotion of Japan-Korea Friendship, co-representative of the Japanese national liaison council of the Fact-Finding Group for the Probe into the Truth about the Forcible Drafting of Koreans, representative of the Tokyo group for the probe into the truth about the forcible drafting of Koreans, etc.

The speakers said now is the time to probe the truth about the crimes and other wrong acts perpetrated by Japan against the Koreans killed in an alien land without having any chance to go back home.