Families to tour Families of the nine people killed aboard the Ehime Maru will get to view the recovery operations going on off the Honolulu Airport's reef runway today.
Ehime Maru salvage site
The Navy says the recovery
Attorney group works with families
operations should be completed
sometime next weekBy Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.comThe short trip is being conducted by the Japanese Consulate. Relatives of all nine missing people are here with the arrival yesterday of family members of 17-year-old Takeshi Mizuguchi, one of four victims whose bodies still have not been accounted for.
Capt. Christopher Murray, the Navy's supervisor of diving, said yesterday the Navy expects to complete both the search of the 190-foot vessel and the recovery of personal effects by the middle of next week.
So far, 45 percent of the Ehime Maru has been searched, and a few personal items have been brought to the surface, rinsed, dried and stored in plastic bags at Pearl Harbor.
Family members have been told that so far, 59 personal items have been recovered. They were supposed to be shown to family members today.
Murray said yesterday that divers as yet have not taken any items from the crew's lockers, adding that most of the items brought to surface were recovered only because they were in the divers' way.
Toshio Kojima, Japan's parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs, said a wedding ring of one of the Ehime Maru's teachers, Hiroshi Makizawa, has been returned to his widow. Other items also have been returned to family members, although Kojima said he did not know what items were recovered.
The Ehime Maru sank Feb. 9 after it was struck by the nuclear submarine USS Greeneville in waters about nine miles south of Diamond Head. It was relocated to the shallow-water recovery site earlier this month.
The Navy estimates "it will take seven to 10 days to complete a very thorough search" and to retrieve personal items, Murray said.
It will take several more days to remove hazardous debris and the remaining diesel fuel trapped in the hull and reattach the Ehime Maru to the Crowley 450-10 barge for the final voyage to a spot 12 miles south of Barbers Point where it will be left in 6,000 feet of water.
Murray said the diving operation was unique and dangerous not only because of the 115-foot depth, but because of the penetration into the ship as far down as three decks and several compartments.
Lt. Cmdr. Neil Sheehan, Pacific Fleet's liaison with the families of the nine missing men and boys, said private cremation services are planned. Only five bodies have been recovered and identified. The sixth will require DNA testing.
Besides Mizuguchi and Makizawa, still unaccounted for are student Yusuke Terata, 17, and teacher Jun Nakata.
No memorial services are planned in Hawaii, Sheehan said. The bodies will be cremated Thursday after the families view them tomorrow.
At the time of the collision, Kojima said he was angered and questioned how such an accident could even happen.
But after flying over the collision site in a helicopter yesterday and observing the vast ocean, Kojima said, "I realized it was clearly accidental."
Kojima plans to join victims' families to view recovery operations to express his gratitude to the divers and to pray for the remaining missing victims.
Star-Bulletin reporter Rosemarie Bernardo contributed to this report.
A group of 30 attorneys from law firms across Japan is aiding two surviving families of the victims of the Ehime Maru accident. Japanese attorney group seeks
justice for 2 Ehime Maru victimsBy Leila Fujimori
lfujimori@starbulletin.com"If this were for money, 30 people wouldn't participate in this," said Mayumi Fujiwara, a Tokyo lawyer. "One person would take the case."
Fujiwara was one of three attorneys belonging to the Japan Lawyers Association of Freedom who came to Hawaii to support the families of Yusuke Terata and Toshimichi Furuya, two of the nine people killed aboard the Ehime Maru when it was sunk in a Feb. 9 collision with the submarine the USS Greeneville.
Fujiwara and Reika Suzuki, two lawyers who agreed to an interview with the Star-Bulletin through an interpreter, belong to the lawyers association, which got its start 80 years ago in Kobe when a big labor strike drew several attorneys from across Japan to help those with no money.
Fujiwara, 47, said she has been personally motivated to participate in cases such as the Ehime maru accident because she is concerned with world peace through non-military, non-violent action.
"I consider this as my life work," she said.
Fujiwara said she took the Terata case because the victims had "absolutely no responsibility, no fault as far as this case is concerned.
"But it appears to me the American Navy is arrogant, and I cannot forgive that," she added. "I would like them to take responsibility ... according to the law."
The attorneys are working on a contingency fee basis, meaning they will be paid a percentage of any compensation the families may receive from the Navy. That percentage is determined by the Japanese bar association and is well below the usual one-third or 40 percent American lawyers ask.
To date, no legal action has been filed in connection with the Ehime Maru accident. Lawyers for the families say they hope court action can be avoided.
The Terata family has said they are not interested in the money, but seek answers concerning the accident. A second group of lawyers represents both survivors and families of the other seven victims killed in the Feb. 9 accident.
Suzuki, 35, a partner in another firm, said she agreed to represent the families for reasons similar to Fujiwara.
"I want to work for people in trouble," she said. "I want to help people, especially ordinary families that are suffering from losing families through sudden accident.
"If I only care about money, I wouldn't take this case. It takes so much time."
Honolulu attorney Lance Taniguchi said he's not surprised with the humanitarian motivation of the Japanese lawyers because he knows of several in Japan.
Whereas American society is very litigious, Japanese society generally is not, he said.
"Basically people would own up to (a mistake) and apologize for it," he said. "I would be very surprised if they brought suit."