Posted at 5:37 p.m., Thursday, November 15, 2001

Japanese divers end search of Ehime Maru

By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer

After Japanese divers spent seven days searching for the remains of the ninth and last Ehime Maru victim, the Navy announced today the search has officially ended.

Capt. Masao Kuramoto of the JDS Chihaya, the Japanese self-defense forces ship involved in the search, called Navy Rear. Adm. William Klemm today to report the divers had thoroughly searched the Ehime Maru and concluded the remains of student Takeshi Mizuguchi were no longer on board the ship.

Chihaya's crew had "given it its all," said Klemm, head of the salvage and recovery mission. The divers on board the Chihaya started diving after the Navy ended its part of the search on Nov. 7.

The Japanese divers made 101 dives and spent about 70 hours searching for Mizuguchi. The Navy had conducted 425 dives and about 333 hours searching inside the sunken Ehime Maru.

The Navy will now begin preparations to move the Japanese fishing vessel to its final resting place about 12 1/2 miles off Kalaeloa Point and about 8,000 feet underwater.

The Ehime Maru's hatches will be sealed and any fuel removed, if possible. Navy officials hope to have the work done by Nov. 27. The move – including the lifting and dropping of the ship – will take about two days.

Students Mizuguchi, Yusuke Terata, Toshiya Sakashima and Katsuya Nomoto, all 17, died when their fishing training ship was hit by the Navy submarine USS Greeneville in February. Also killed were fisheries school instructors Hiroshi Makizawa, 37, and Jun Nakata, 33, and crewmen Hiroshi Nishida, 49, Toshimichi Furuya, 47, and Hirotaka Segawa, 60.

The remains of the other men and boys were located by Navy and Japanese divers on the sunken ship, but Mizuguchi's body could not be found.