Kaka'ako may get Ehime memorial
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By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
A Japanese delegation has picked a spot in Kaka'ako Waterfront Park for a possible Ehime Maru memorial that could incorporate an anchor from the sunken fisheries training vessel.
More details of the proposal are expected today at a meeting with the Hawai'i Community Development Authority, the agency that oversees the redevelopment of state waterfront land between downtown Honolulu and Waikiki.
The agency will consider a resolution "expressing support on a conceptual basis" for the proposal.
Gov. Ben Cayetano met in Honolulu with Ehime Gov. Moriyuki Kato on Oct. 24 to discuss a lasting memorial to the Feb. 9 sinking of the ship. Nine Japanese men and boys were killed when the fast-attack submarine USS Greeneville sliced through the 830-ton ship's hull during a surfacing drill.
A delegation from Ehime prefecture looked at sites for a memorial "and the site that appealed to them was Kaka'ako Waterfront Park," said the development authority's executive director, Jan Yokota.
The site atop the tallest mound in the park was chosen because it provides a vantage point of the spot where the Ehime Maru sank nine miles south of Diamond Head; the ship's eventual resting place in 6,000 feet of water; and Aloha Tower and Honolulu Harbor, where fisheries training vessels from Ehime often have docked.
"The fact they could see those three locations from that site really attracted them to that one location in the waterfront park," Yokota said. "They felt it was the most suitable."
Although the design is still evolving, Yokota said thought has been given to incorporating an anchor from the Ehime Maru into the memorial.
Navy representatives said the Japanese government asked that items unique to the Ehime Maru, such as anchors and nameplate, be removed during the search for the last missing body and its retrieval. Divers have recovered eight of nine missing crewmen, teachers and students, and efforts to find the last body continued yesterday.
Yokota said Japanese officials and the development authority are expected to iron out details of an agreement for a memorial in coming weeks. The hope is that the memorial can be in place by the first anniversary of the sinking of the Ehime Maru, Yokota said.
