Tears flow at Ehime Maru memorial service
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
Silently, beginning at 1:43 p.m. yesterday, family members of those killed aboard the Ehime Maru stepped forward in turn during a memorial service at Kaka'ako Waterfront Park, and bent toward the anchor and nine lengths of chain that serve as a memorial.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
They added lei to the growing mound of flowers. They placed pictures: a happy group of students, teachers and crewmen smiling in front of Aloha Tower, ready to depart on an adventure. They lit incense and left food and beverages, and as each family bowed and gave way, another took its place.
Tourists pay their respects at the Ehime Maru memorial in Kaka'ako. A U.S. Navy submarine surfaced through the hull of the fishing vessel Ehime Maru three years ago, leaving nine people dead, including four high-school students.
Nine people, four of them high-school students, died three years ago on Feb. 9 when the USS Greeneville, a Navy submarine, surfaced through the hull of the Ehime Maru, a fishing vessel from the Uwajima Fisheries High School.
The accident at first threatened relations between Japan and the United States. However, over the years, the shared grief has strengthened the friendship between the people of the Ehime Prefecture and those of Hawai'i, and in November the governors of the two regions signed a sister-state prefecture agreement aimed at building educational, social and cultural ties.
Family members of five of the deceased flew in from Japan for the ceremony. They wiped away tears as Jake Shimabukuro quietly played Hana, an Okinawan song of peace, on his 'ukulele. Behind him, the surf splashed against the rocky shore.
Tatsuyoshi Mizuguchi, father of Takeshi Mizuguchi, whose body was the only one among the nine that the Navy was unable to recover, led the applause for Shimabukuro. Mizuguchi said last year that his heart softened with every visit to Hawai'i.
Shimabukuro has played at previous observances of the disaster.
"I come every year," he said. "I've built a relationship with the family members over the years, and I pay my respects."
Wreaths from Ehime Prefecture, the 26 survivors of the collision and their families, the people of Hawai'i, the Uwajima Fisheries High School and the Ehime Maru Memorial Association were also placed on the memorial.
Among the journalists gathered for the observance was a production crew filming a segment for the History Channel. Part of the "Deep Sea Detectives" series, the segment is scheduled to air in May.
Reach Karen Blakeman at kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2430.
