Japanese foreign minister impressed with recovery

By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer

Japan Foreign Affairs Minister Makiko Tanaka met briefly with both U. S. Navy and Japan's Sea Self Defense Forces divers at Pearl Harbor today during a whirlwind Hawai'i stopover en route to Tokyo.

"Gokuro sama," Japan's feisty first female foreign affairs minister told divers training to retrieve bodies of nine Japanese lost in the sinking of the Ehime Maru. "Gambatte kudasai!"

"The effort is appreciated — please keep it up."

"What do you think, Mrs. Tanaka?" a reporter called out. "Are you impressed?"

"I am impressed. But at the same time because of the fact that the recovery of the Ehime Maru is taking more time than expected, we know that the families are very much concerned, so we sincerely hope that the recovery happens as soon as possible. And for the all the involvement of the people who are concerned, we very much appreciate this."

Tanaka was referring to a series of snags which have delayed the planned lifting of the Ehime Maru from Sept. 15 to the end of the month. If the vessel can be raised a bit above the sea floor 2,000 feet down, it will be moved slowly to a sea cliff off Honolulu International Airport where it will be raised to a coral reef shelf about 100 feet deep where divers can begin their grisly search.

Tanaka arrived last night from San Francisco where she made an historic expansion of Japan's apologies for the suffering it caused during World War II.

Tanaka, heckled by protesting World War II veterans in San Francisco, specifically included American "slave labor" prisoners of war in her reaffirmation of a 1995 apology by the Japanese government.

In Hawai'i, Americans have been apologizing to Japan ever since the Navy's submarine USS Greeneville accidentally rammed and sank the fisheries training ship Ehime Maru nine miles off Diamond Head on Feb. 9.

Instead of protestors, there were friendly faces of leaders of Japanese-American groups in Hawai'i who came to the Japanese Consulate where Minister Tanaka herself poured the tea during a brief reception, then sped off to catch a noon-time flight to Tokyo.