Navy ends Ehime Maru recovery operations
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By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
After diving for 21 days on the Ehime Maru, the Navy said yesterday it has ended its historic attempt to recover the remains of all nine men and boys who died when the Japanese fishing training vessel was rammed and sunk Feb. 9 by a U.S. fast-attack nuclear submarine.
The U.S.-led effort came to a stop Tuesday at 3:47 p.m. Eight bodies were recovered from the 830-ton ship in 115 feet of water off Honolulu International Airport's reef runway.
The fact that the team of 60 Navy and Japanese civilian divers found two teachers, three high school students and three crewmen during the more than $60 million operation exceeded expectations. The Navy early on predicted it would find five to seven bodies.
The body of student Takeshi Mizuguchi, 17, was not found.
"Success in terms of numbers? Yes (the recovery was) successful," Navy Rear Adm. William Klemm, head of the salvage and recovery mission, said yesterday. "Success in addressing all of the families? No, and I think we leave this tragic (event) with an empty part in our hearts for that family."
Klemm said Mizuguchi's family showed up for the daily Navy briefing at the command center bearing 24 pink roses for the staff already knowing what officials had to tell them — that the Navy effort was being called off.
"It was a very emotional briefing, a very difficult briefing," Klemm said, adding the roses were "a measure of kindness and class that go beyond anything I've seen in my life."
Before the Ehime Maru is towed 12 miles out and allowed to settle to its final resting place in 6,000 feet of water south of Kalaeloa Point, 30 divers from the Japanese self-defense forces ship JDS Chihaya will dive on the sunken ship "to verify the completeness and accuracy" of the work done by the Navy, Klemm said.
The Chihaya's dive operation is expected to begin today, and could take a week to two weeks, Klemm said. Divers will be using similar surface-air-supplied breathing gear.
"We would like to see the operation come to a conclusion around the end of the month," he said. "But that will be very dependent on how the weather cooperates."
Klemm said he sincerely hopes Chihaya divers find Mizuguchi, but he added at this point in time there is a low probability of that happening.
Navy and Japanese civilian divers from the ship repair facility in Yokosuka spent 333 hours in the water during 425 dives between Oct. 15 and Tuesday. Diving went on 12 hours a day for all but two days during that time. Some 1,500 to 2,000 items, including personal effects, were retrieved from the ship.
Klemm said the divers were "very highly motivated." A particularly emotional moment came when families of the victims arrived at the barge that served as a diving platform over the shallow-water site and threw flowers into the sea.
The families and divers also waved to each other.
"It was very touching for (the divers)," Klemm said. "There was no shortage of morale out there. I think I can tell you that every one of them was very proud of what they did, and every one was sad they didn't find the ninth member."
Mizuguchi's family is expected to remain in Hawai'i while the Chihaya operation is under way. Other victims' families have returned to Japan, he said.
Students Mizuguchi, Yusuke Terata, Toshiya Sakashima and Katsuya Nomoto, all 17, died in the sinking along with fisheries school instructors Hiroshi Makizawa, 37, and Jun Nakata, 33, and crewmen Hiroshi Nishida, 49, Toshimichi Furuya, 47, and Hirotaka Segawa, 60.
The 190-foot Ehime Maru quickly sank to the ocean floor after the fast-attack submarine USS Greeneville ripped though its hull during a surfacing drill nine miles south of Diamond Head.
"The Navy has accepted full responsibility for the accident that occurred, and we take that responsibility seriously," Klemm said yesterday. "That's why we've undertaken this operation from the beginning — against a lot of technical odds."
The recovery from 2,000 feet was precedent-setting for the Navy, which used at least eight Remotely Operated Vehicles in rigging the ship for the 14.5-nautical-mile trip to the shallow-water site. There were several setbacks, including difficulty positioning lifting plates beneath the ship.
Still of concern is diesel oil remaining on the Ehime Maru. Klemm said a best guess is that 1,000 to 10,000 gallons still are in fuel tanks that will be pumped out before the ship is taken out to the deep-water site. "Significant leaks" probably meant that thousands of gallons of oil escaped and dissolved in the ocean, Klemm said.
Navy officials said the final cost for the operation still has to be determined.
"The fact that we were able to provide closure to eight of nine families makes us feel very good, and I think it justifies the operation from the very beginning," Klemm said.
