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Japanese demand
By Joseph Coleman
traditional apology from
sub commander
Associated PressTOKYO (AP) -- When something goes wrong in Japan, one scene is always the same: Shamefaced and teary eyed, the indicted politician or failed company executive bows deeply for the cameras and begs forgiveness.
Inquiry delayed
Now families mourning nine people missing in the collision of a U.S. Navy submarine and a Japanese fishing vessel want the sub commander to come to the sunken ship's home port and apologize. But that seems unlikely soon -- if at all.
The Japanese demand for a public apology from Cmdr. Scott Waddle has become a diplomatic sticking point in the aftermath of the collision and a measure of the vast cultural gulf between the two nations.
On one side, apologizing in the United States implies an admission of guilt and could open the way for lawsuits. In Japan, saying sorry is a way of smoothing over differences and avoiding further trouble.
The grieving families have had a hard time appreciating the finer points of American litigation.
"I explained to the people the different systems in the U.S. and Japan," said Moriyuki Kato, governor of Ehime prefecture, home of most of the victims. "I think the families understood half."
The collision has been a nightmare for the victims' families. The USS Greeneville surged to the surface off Hawaii on Feb. 9, wrecking the Ehime Maru fishing and training vessel. Nine Japanese -- including four high school students -- are missing and presumed dead.
The anguish over the accident has been compounded by disclosures that civilians were in the sub's control room at the time of the collision, and that a crewman plotting sonar readings says he was distracted by their presence.
U.S. officials say they're doing all they can to soothe the wounds.
A flood of apologies has come from Washington: President Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld have all expressed their sadness over the tragedy.
U.S. Ambassador Thomas Foley has been especially active on the apology front. He met with bereaved families after the accident, and on Wednesday made a personal apology to Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko at the Imperial Palace.
"I don't know how the U.S. government and people of the United States can more adequately express their regrets and their deepest apologies," Foley said in a recent interview when asked about the demand for an apology from Waddle.
But the U.S. efforts have clearly not been enough in the eyes of some Japanese.
"I think it's common sense that the commander of the submarine apologize to the bereaved families," said Shizue Aoki, a secretary in Tokyo. "Nobody has taken responsibility for this, and that's why the apology has to come from the commander."
Fifteen relatives of the victims met with Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Foley in Tokyo on Thursday. The families have been pushing for Waddle to come to Uwajima, their fishing village in southwestern Japan to apologize to them, said Kazuhiko Koshikawa, the prime minister's deputy press secretary. Waddle's lawyers, however, have advised him to keep silent.
Apologies are made with relative ease in Japan, even if they are often largely symbolic and rarely mean that the person apologizing actually did anything wrong. Company executives, for example, routinely take public responsibility -- and accept limited punishment -- for the misdeeds of subordinates, much as a parent might take the blame for a child's misbehavior.
Apologizing is actually a good way to avoid legal action in Japan by assuaging the feelings of the aggrieved party. People are more likely to end up in Japanese court if neither of them makes a mea culpa.
The Japanese government, however, has not always found it that easy to say sorry.
Asian countries have campaigned for decades to get Tokyo to issue a full-blooded apology for its military march through the region in the first half of the 20th century and for forcing hundreds of thousands of women forced to work as prostitutes in wartime brothels.
While the government has expressed regret, Tokyo has stopped short of the apology demanded, in part because of the fierce opposition of conservative elements who say Japan has nothing to be sorry about.
The apology flap is not the only cultural misunderstanding stemming from the sub accident.
The bereaved families, for instance, are campaigning to raise the sunken ship, despite some skepticism from U.S. officials who point out that the wreck is under 2,033 feet of water.
The Japanese determination to retrieve the bodies of their loved ones, however, is derived from beliefs that the souls of the dead cannot be at peace unless the body is properly cremated and entombed.
The relatives say they are desperate to have "some remembrance" of their missing loved ones, said Koshikawa.