Ehime Maru yields two more bodies
| • | Interactive graphics on the diving recovery operation and how the Ehime Maru was moved to shallower waters |
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By Tanya Bricking
Advertiser Staff Writer
Navy divers found two more bodies yesterday inside the sunken Ehime Maru, bringing the total to three found since the wreckage was towed to shallow water.
Advertiser library photo
Because of safety considerations and waning daylight, divers ran out of time yesterday to remove a third body from the ship.
The remains of the first victim to be recovered were identified as those of Hirotaka Segawa, the ship's chief radio officer.
The first two have been sent to the Honolulu medical examiner's office for identification.
Dives are expected to continue today in the $60 million recovery effort.
Chief Medical Examiner Kanthi von Guenthner used dental records yesterday to identify the first victim, Hirotaka Segawa, the ship's 60-year-old chief radio officer.
Segawa had planned to retire when he returned home. He sent postcards Feb. 8, the day before the submarine USS Greeneville rammed his ship, telling family members he was "filled with deep emotion reaching the last stage of my life at sea for 40 years and then some."
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
He had tried to call for help on the ship's damaged radio before the Ehime Maru went down.
From left, Japanese Consul General Minoru Shibuya, Honolulu Medical Examiner Kanthi von Guenthner and Adm. William Klemm held a news conference yesterday.
"I feel half happy and half bitter — happy that his body was found but bitter that he died in such a tragic accident," said his daughter, Takako Segawa, from Miura, Japan.
Officials will not release details of Segawa's death, except to say that the cause was drowning.
Interpreter Toshi Erikson contributed to this report.
