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Tokyo Asks Washington to Consider Raising Japanese Sunken Ship
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori said Sunday that Japan has asked the United States to consider raising a Japanese ship which sank after colliding with a US nuclear submarine off Hawaii Friday.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda conveyed the request to the US on Saturday, Mori told reporters.
Of the 35 people aboard the Ehime Maru, a fisheries training ship, 26 were rescued while nine went missing after the collision.
"The rescue of the nine missing people should be considered first. If they have not been discovered through searches on the surface of the sea, everybody would like to know about the inside, " Mori said.
Mori made the remarks after meeting Ehime Governor Moriyuki Kato, who asked the prime minister to demand the U.S. immediately to raise the ship.
"The captain of the ship has said many of the missing people are likely confined in the ship," Kato told reporters.
The Ehime prefectural government quoted Hisao Onishi, rescued captain of the 499-ton Ehime Maru, that many of the nine missing people were believed to be either in the bottom of the ship or the dining room when it was struck by the US Navy's 6,080-ton nuclear-powered submarine Greeneville.
The Ehime Maru, which was from Uwajima Fisheries High School in Ehime Prefecture, southwestern Japan, sank 550 meters to the bottom of the sea off Hawaii's Oahu Island.
Of the nine missing people, four are students and two are teachers at the high school. The remaining three are crew members of the vessel.
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