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Saturday is the 12th anniversary of the sinking of the Ehime Maru
For those of you who don't remember, the Ehime Maru was the training ship of a Japanese fishery high school that was sunk by the USS Greeneville submarine off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii, on February 9, 2001. There had been reports that the submarine was under the control of a civilian political donor at the time it made its "emergency maneuver" that put it on a collision course with the Japanese vessel. Whoever was in charge, the end result was that the Japanese vessel was sunk, taking the lives of all 9 people on board (including 4 high school students).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehime_Maru_and_USS_Greeneville_collision
1 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
It was in the early days, when Bush took office! In fact the sub commander was not allowed to apologize, but eventually he gave up his commission and went to Japan and did so, as a civilian. This was the first major error from the Bush Administration. If I remember correctly, the Sub Commander had some special VIPs from Washington on board, and they wanted to see what the sub could do. They decided on showing them how the sub would breach the water, and in doing so sunk the Japanese vessel which was right over them. It was tragic and I was angry that the Bush administration thought it was no big deal!
edited to note:
Two days after the sinking of the civilian craft, on 11 February, U.S. President George W. Bush apologized for the accident on national television, stating, "I want to reiterate what I said to the prime minister of Japan: I'm deeply sorry about the accident that took place; our nation is sorry."
