Associated Press

TOKYO — After apologies from President Bush and other top officials, the families of nine Japanese presumed dead received the words of remorse they wanted most — from the captain of the U.S. submarine that scattered their loved ones in the sea.

Cmdr. Scott Waddle visited a senior Foreign Ministry official at Japan’s consulate in Honolulu yesterday and hand-delivered 13 apologies addressed to the families of the nine missing, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and others.

The gesture is likely to go a long way toward soothing anger in Japan, where the tradition for making amends with a formal bow and a teary-eyed apology is taken very seriously.

The Foreign Ministry, which today confirmed Waddle’s apology in Tokyo, said the letters will be sent promptly. Other letters were directed to the captain of the Japanese fishing trawler, the governor of the state where the missing lived and the principal of the school that four missing students attended.

“Cmdr. Waddle wrote letters of apology and asked that they be delivered as soon as possible,” Foreign Ministry official Atushi Kaifu said.

Tensions between Japan and the United States had already been eased by the visit of the Navy’s No. 2 officer, Adm. William Fallon, who impressed relatives of the missing with the sincerity of his apology when he met them on Wednesday.

“I felt the envoy was sincere, and it was the most satisfying meeting we have had yet (with American officials),” said Ryosuke Terata, whose 17-year-old son is among the missing. “We thank you for meeting with us.”

Fallon said he would go to the boat’s home port on Thursday to meet with one representative of each family of the missing.

“The message I will deliver is very simple,” he said. “I came seeking their understanding, seeking their acceptance of our apology.”

The meetings are meant to calm anger over the Feb. 9 accident off Hawai'i, when the USS Greeneville, practicing an emergency surfacing maneuver, smashed into the Ehime Maru and sank it within minutes.

Of the 35 people aboard the Ehime Maru, which was operated by a high school for aspiring sailors in Uwajima, about 430 miles southwest of Tokyo, all but nine were rescued.

Missing and presumed dead are four 17-year-old students, two teachers and three crew members. Their families have repeatedly demanded that the bodies be recovered and have called for the captain of the submarine to make a direct apology.

Fallon said Tuesday that raising a boat the size of the 500-ton, 190-foot Ehime Maru from 2,000 feet has never been done, to the best of his knowledge, but the possibility was being evaluated.

The Navy will begin considering the amount of compensation any time that the families say they are ready, Fallon said.

Also Wednesday, the U.S. Embassy released responses to more than two dozen questions family members had submitted to the embassy and the Navy.

The responses reiterated the Navy’s claims that the submarine’s crew did everything it could to help rescue people, and that two civilians at the sub’s controls were “under the direct supervision” of crew members.

But the Navy and embassy left open the possibility that their presence may have been a factor in the accident.

“Although their actions would normally not be expected to affect the surfacing evolution, these actions will be a subject of the investigation,” they said.

About 50,000 U.S. troops are stationed here, including the largest contingent of Marines outside the United States. The United States maintains several major Air Force bases in Japan, and the home port of the Navy’s Seventh Fleet is just south of Tokyo.

Though strongly supported by both Washington and Tokyo, the troops’ presence is often a source of friction, particularly on the small southern island of Okinawa, where roughly half the troops are based.