Uwajima City mayor seeks full disclosure of events

The mayor of Uwajima City, home of the fishing ship Ehime Maru, says he wants full disclosure of events aboard the submarine USS Greeneville in the moments before it collided with the Japanese training vessel off O‘ahu on Feb. 9.

Hirohisa Ishibashi’s remarks came on the eve of today’s opening of the Navy court of inquiry into the accident.

"We need to be told what happened in the submarine and why this sad accident happened," said Ishibashi, speaking as part of a traditional Hawai‘ian ceremony yesterday to honor the nine students, teachers and crewmen lost at sea, and to begin the healing within families, and between countries.

Ishibashi said such information was important to both the Japanese and American people.

He added that "the truth will be known."

Ishibashi asked that the Japanese be told what measures will be taken to prevent such an accident from recurring.

Ishibashi also had words of compassion and kindness. He said he spoke not just for himself, but for the families who lost loved ones and for the Japanese people.

"When I received the invitation for this ceremony, I felt strongly from now on we need to move forward," he said.

"Of course, I wished so hard this was a bad dream. But now I feel we have to accept it as a fact that it happened."

In the end, he symbolically reached out a hand toward the people of Hawai‘i.

"Even though this was a very tragic and sad accident, I hope that overcoming this, the ties between Uwajima and Honolulu will be even closer," he said.

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