TOKYO >> The former captain of a U.S. nuclear submarine had wanted to apologize in person earlier to the families of nine Japanese killed in an accident last year but was blocked by the U.S. Navy, two lawyers accompanying him said yesterday. Waddle’s lawyers say
Navy opposed trip
By Natalie Obiko Pearson
Associated PressRetired U.S. Navy Cmdr. Scott Waddle was at the helm of the USS Greeneville when it surfaced beneath the Ehime Maru, sinking the vessel off the coast of Oahu on Feb. 9, 2001. The Ehime Maru was carrying 35 students, teachers and crew from Uwajima Fisheries High School in southern Japan.
Waddle had vowed to visit the victims' hometown before retiring last October following disciplinary proceedings.
But his lawyer said the U.S. Navy repeatedly tried to prevent the trip, both while he was in the military and again after he retired.
"He attempted to come on his own while he was still on active duty, but he was ordered not to," said Charles Gittins, who represented Waddle in the military inquiry.
When the former skipper was planning a private trip after retirement, the Navy sent letters -- and an e-mail last week -- trying to dissuade Waddle, citing safety concerns and the possibility of his arrest by Japanese authorities, Gittins said.
Emotions ran high in Japan after the accident, which took the lives of four 17-year-old students and their instructors, and families were upset that Waddle was not formally court-martialed and instead allowed to retire at full rank and pension.
There was little indication, however, that Japanese authorities were pushing for a trial here.
"In my judgment, there was no legal reason for the Navy to object to this," said C. Peter Erlinder, a professor at William Mitchell College of Law and coordinator of the visit.
Erlinder also rejected the assertion that an earlier visit might have increased the U.S. government's liability since Washington acknowledged full responsibility soon after the accident.
U.S. Navy Japan spokesman Jon Nylander said he was unaware of anyone in the Navy telling Waddle he could not visit Japan.
Families of the victims complained that Waddle's trip -- almost two years after the accident -- came too late.
"He should have come sooner," the mother of Yuta Sakamoto, one of the student survivors, said after Waddle visited a memorial for the victims at her son's school yesterday.
Last month, the families of 33 of the 35 aboard the trawler agreed to a reported $13 million compensation package from the U.S. Navy.
Negotiations are continuing separately with the families of the two others, which demanded a visit by Waddle as a condition for settling with the Navy.
Waddle met one of the families still negotiating, Ryosuke and Masumi Terata, yesterday in Tokyo to express his condolences. Their son, Yusuke, was 17 when he died aboard the Ehime Maru.
"I think it was the right thing to meet former captain Waddle today," Masumi Terata told reporters at a news conference after the meeting. "I think I am ready to move toward a settlement," she said, indicating a tentative date in January.
According to lawyers present at the conference, the family of Toshimichi Furuya, the ship's 47-year-old engineer who died in the accident, is also leaning toward a settlement, which would close the case.
Waddle visited the fisheries school yesterday and placed flowers and bowed in silent prayer at a school monument to the dead. He later met with four young survivors and their families.
