Submarines have run a collision course with Japanese vessels before
By Hiroshi Chida and Wayne
Specht, Stars and Stripes
The USS Greeneville’s Feb. 9 collision with the Japanese
training ship Ehime Maru was not the first time a submarine has collided with a Japanese
vessel.
During the past 20 years, two other incidents garnered worldwide
attention.
On April 9, 1981, the nuclear submarine USS George Washington rammed
the Shanghai, China-bound 2,350-ton Japanese freighter Nissho Maru in the South China Sea.
News accounts said the submarine left the scene before determining if
the ship was sinking.
Japanese survivors said the submarine surfaced, but then submerged
and vanished without attempting a rescue. A U.S. military plane ignored their appeal for
help, survivors also said.
The incident triggered a furor in nuclear-sensitive Japan. Anger
against the submarine’s failure to spot the freighter before the collision and to
conduct any extensive rescue efforts following the collision grabbed headlines.
U.S. officials said fog and rain obscured the scene, preventing the
sighting of the 13 survivors who were plucked from their life rafts by Japanese destroyers
20 hours later. Two Japanese crewmen died.
At the time of accident, the submarine was running at periscope depth
when it hit the freighter, which sank with its cargo.
The submarine received only minor damage to its conning tower.
Japanese authorities were not informed of the collision for 18 hours.
The U.S. Navy eventually accepted full responsibility for the
collision and loss of the Japanese crewmen.
The Navy’s investigation report concluded that the collision
resulted from highly coincidental circumstances compounded by errors by some submarine
crewmembers.
Cmdr. Robert Woehl, 41, was permanently relieved of his command and
reprimanded after a preliminary investigation, virtually ending a 20-year career.
Lt. Roy Hampton, 28, received a reprimand for failing to conduct a
thorough periscope search of the horizon before the collision. Three other crewmen
received nonpunitive letters of caution.
The ship’s owner, survivors and families of the two men who died
sought compensation of about $4.5 million, including $2.7 million for the vessel.
All parties agreed to an out-of-court settlement in which about $3
million was paid.
On July 23, 1988, a Japanese sport fishing boat, the No. 1 Fuji Maru,
was rammed by a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force submarine, the Nadashio Maru, in
Tokyo Bay.
Thirty people were killed when the 2,200-ton submarine struck the
154-ton fishing boat. It sank in fewer than two minutes after 19 people were rescued from
the boat.
There were no injuries among the 75 crewmen aboard the Nadashio Maru,
which was returning to Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, from exercises at sea.
News accounts said the submarine was crossing the shipping channel
when the fishing boat approached it from the right, and a yacht was heading toward it at a
closer distance from the left.
To avoid hitting the yacht, the submarine reduced its speed, which
put it on the collision course with the fishing boat.
The Fuji Maru was salvaged, and 20 victims were found inside the
ship.
The Japanese government paid compensation totaling $17 million to
families of 28 dead and 17 injured.
Two dead crewmembers of the Fuji Maru were not compensated by the
government since both vessels were found at fault.
The head of Japan’s Defense Agency, Tsutomu Kawara, resigned one
month later, taking responsibility for the accident.
In 1990, the Yokohama District Court of Japan ruled both vessels were
partly responsible for the accident.
The submarine commander, Keisuke Yamashita, was sentenced to two
years in prison. That sentence was reduced to four years of probation.
Capt. Manji Kondo, the Fuji Maru’s skipper, also was sentenced
to a year in prison, but that sentence later was reduced to four years of probation.
Mitsunori Nomoto, father of 17-year-old Katsuya Nomoto, one of the
nine missing in the collision of the Ehime Maru and the USS Greeneville, believes other
submarine accidents will happen.
“So long as submarines exist, accidents like this will keep
happening,” he said.
The Associated Press, United Press International and
Shukan Shincho sources were used in this report.
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