9 Ehime Maru Tragedy Victims Remembered 25 Years On

Uwajima, Ehime Pref., Feb. 10 (Jiji Press)–Bereaved relatives, students, teachers and others gathered Tuesday to mark 25 years since an incident in which a Japanese fisheries high school training vessel was struck by a U.S. nuclear submarine off Hawaii in 2001, leaving nine people dead. About 260 people attended a memorial ceremony held at the high school in the city of Uwajima in the western prefecture of Ehime, praying for the victims of the incident involving the training ship Ehime Maru. At 8:43 a.m., the time when the accident occurred on Feb. 10, 2001, Japan time, a bell salvaged from the Ehime Maru was rung nine times, matching the number of the dead, and participants observed a moment of silence. “I’m overcome with grief when I think of those whose futures were taken halfway through their aspirations,” Mitsumasa Kawano, the principal of the school, said, urging students “not to forget the preciousness of life and the importance of peace.” “Things like the accident should never happen again,” Ryodai Yamashita, 17, head of the school’s student council, said after the ceremony. “It is important to pass the lessons of the accident on to younger students to make sure that every one of them knows what happened and that the tragedy is never forgotten,” Yamashita, a second-year student at the fisheries propagation department, added. A memorial ceremony has been held at the same time in Hawaii every year, but this year’s event was canceled due to bad weather. In the accident, the Ehime Maru was struck by the USS Greeneville when the nuclear submarine, which was boarded by civilians at the time, was carrying out an emergency surfacing demonstration off Oahu. The nine victims were four student trainees, two instructors and three crew members. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]