Funeral services to begin for Ehime Maru victims

	Video of divers searching the interior of the Ehime Maru in QuickTime and Real formats. (QuickTime or Real plug-in required)
•	Special report: Collision at Sea

By Tanya Bricking
Advertiser Staff Writer

Funeral services that have been on hold for eight months will begin today as families of Ehime Maru victims begin to cremate their dead.

Unlike Americans, who have been able to mourn victims of the Sept. 11 attacks without having bodies to bury, families of those killed Feb. 9 when a U.S. submarine collided with the Ehime Maru have waited all this time.

"The bodies figure more in Japanese funeral rites than they do, say, in our funeral rites," said George Tanabe Jr., a professor and former chairman of the religion department at the University of Hawai'i who has been advising Navy divers about Japanese protocol and funeral customs.

"The afterlife is thought of in more physical terms."

Since bringing the Ehime Maru to a safe depth this month for divers to search, seven of the nine missing bodies have been recovered. The medical examiner is using DNA to identify the sixth body found, and identification of the seventh will begin today.

It also will be a day for cremation rituals to include reciting a sutra and burning incense, which represents food for the dead, Tanabe said. Feeding the victims keeps them from becoming "hungry ghosts."

Navy divers have asked about such customs because the Navy does not want its technical success to be flawed by poor protocol, Tanabe said.

He talked with divers about sensitive issues such as respectful ways to place remains in body bags.

Divers have adapted, but they have not performed rituals as part of the recovery, he said.

It will take another week or so to search the other half of the 830-ton vessel methodically, said Capt. Christopher Murray, the Navy's diving supervisor.

"Their hearts are with the families, and they're continuing to do their job out there," Murray said of his divers. "I can't say enough of what they're doing out there."

Based on accounts of 26 survivors of the Ehime Maru crash, divers expected to find seven bodies at most. But they are not giving up on finding two victims presumed swept away, Murray said.

"We still have a large portion of the vessel to search," he said, "and until we've done that 100 percent, we will continue — 100 percent, or nine crew members returned."

Takako Segawa, the daughter of Hirotaka Segawa, the ship's 60-year-old chief radio officer and the first victim found and identified, said she cannot express relief openly with two victims still missing.

"I want to stay here until all remains will be found," she said. "But I have to go back to Japan."

In Honolulu, Gov. Ben Cayetano met yesterday with Moriyuki Kato, governor of Ehime, home to the Ehime Maru, to discuss a lasting memorial.

They want to use donated money to place a plaque or anchor somewhere such as Kaka'ako point, overlooking the ocean where the Ehime Maru will rest once the search is over.

Interpreter Toshi Erikson and Advertiser Capitol Bureau Chief Kevin Dayton contributed to this report.

Reach Tanya Bricking at tbricking@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8026.