Navy and Japanese divers found a fourth set of remains yesterday in the Ehime Maru, which sank after colliding with a U.S. nuclear submarine. Fourth Ehime victim found;
1 body ID’d as studentBy Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.comAlso, the medical examiner identified the second body recovered this week from the Ehime Maru as Katsuya Nomoto, one of four 17-year-old students killed in the Feb. 9 collision off Diamond Head.
"I'd like to tell him, 'You're finally coming home,'" said his mother, Akiko Nomoto, 50, in Japan.
"Although it is good that his body was found, the whole thing is regrettable," said Kazumitsu Joko, vice principal of Uwajima Fisheries High School, where the teenagers were students.
Nomoto drowned, according to an autopsy performed by Dr. Kanthi Von Guenthner, city medical examiner.
The other identified victim, Hirotaka Segawa, also drowned. Segawa's body was found Monday by the divers in one of the compartments of the 190-foot Ehime Maru.
Both were identified by dental records. Family members of the identified victims are expected to come to Hawaii to retrieve the remains.
The third and fourth sets of remains were turned over to the medical examiner's office last night after being recovered from the Ehime Maru.
Navy divers located one instructor's wedding ring aboard the Ehime Maru, said Toshio Kojima, Japan's parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs, at the Japanese Cultural Center last night.
The wife of instructor Hiroshi Makisawa had asked the Navy earlier to locate her husband's wedding ring if they are unable to find his body.
Kojima said when the Navy notified Makisawa of their finding, she said, "This is a real miracle." Sixty Navy and six Japanese divers together have spent a total of 24 hours since Monday searching for the remains of nine people who could not be accounted for after the collision.
Despite recovering four bodies since the search began Monday, Lt. Cmdr. Gregg Baumann, Naval Sea Systems relocation manager, said the Navy has not changed its expectations that only five to seven bodies will be recovered.
Twenty-six other students and crewmen were rescued.
As of yesterday afternoon, Baumann said 10 percent to 15 percent of the ship has been surveyed. The Navy has planned a diving and survey operation to run 33 days. The search effort over the past two days has been aided by Hisao Onishi, captain of the Ehime Maru.
Star-Bulletin reporter Rosemarie Bernardo and the Kyodo News Agency contributed to this report.