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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, April 20, 2001



Navy officers explain action to Japanese

 •  Waddle case tests U.S.-Japan relations anew

Associated Press

TOKYO — U.S. Navy officers met today with local officials to explain possible disciplinary action facing the skipper of a submarine that sank a Japanese high school fishing training vessel.

Nine aboard the ship, including four students, died as a result of the Feb. 9 collision when the USS Greeneville hit and sank the Ehime Maru nine miles off O'ahu.

Rear Adm. Robert Chaplin, commander of the U.S. Naval Forces in Japan, and eight other officers met with Moriyuki Kato, the governor of Ehime state, where the training ship was based, said a state official.

There are strong feelings in Japan that Cmdr. Scott Waddle was to blame for failing to detect the Ehime Maru before his submarine surfaced rapidly in a demonstration of emergency procedures. Navy officials have acknowledged that the demonstration was done only for the benefit of 16 civilians aboard, three of whom were seated at the sub's controls at the time of the collision.

Today's meeting was held in the state capital of Matsuyama, 422 miles southwest of Tokyo.

The Navy officers were to meet later in the day with relatives of the nine victims in Uwajima.