ad info

 
CNN.comTranscripts
 
Editions | myCNN | Video | Audio | Headline News Brief | Feedback  

 

  Search
 
 

 

TOP STORIES

Bush signs order opening 'faith-based' charity office for business

Rescues continue 4 days after devastating India earthquake

DaimlerChrysler employees join rapidly swelling ranks of laid-off U.S. workers

Disney's GO.com is a goner

(MORE)

MARKETS
4:30pm ET, 4/16
144.70
8257.60
3.71
1394.72
10.90
879.91
 


WORLD

U.S.

POLITICS

LAW

TECHNOLOGY

ENTERTAINMENT

 
TRAVEL

ARTS & STYLE



(MORE HEADLINES)
 
CNN Websites
Networks image


Saturday Morning News

Sunken Japanese Ship Located Near Honolulu

Aired February 17, 2001 - 9:00 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this hour with breaking news from Hawaii, where we've just learned the Navy has located the Japanese ship that was rammed by a U.S. nuclear submarine off Honolulu.

CNN national correspondent Gary Tuchman joins us on the phone now from Honolulu with the latest -- Gary.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, seven days and 10 hours after a Japanese fishing trawler was struck by a U.S. submarine just south of the island of Oahu here in Hawaii, it has been found nearly 2,000 feet under the sea.

The Ehime Maru has been located by the underwater remotely operated Navy vehicle called Scorpio II. It only took a matter of hours for the robot to find the 180-foot fishing vessel. There is no official confirmation yet of the discovery of the victims, though, we should tell you at this point. Nine people are missing and presumed dead, including four 17-year-old fishery students from southwestern Japan.

Now, the Navy is saying the 499-ton Ehime Maru was spotted at 11:25 p.m. Hawaiian time, which is 4:25 a.m. Eastern Standard time. So it was about four and a half hours ago that the official spotting was made. It took four minutes to confirm that it was indeed the Ehime Maru, because the camera saw the words Ehime Maru on the stern of the ship.

Now, these families want their loved ones' bodies recovered more than anything right now. This discovery may make that goal a more immediate possibility. We can tell you the ship is sitting straight up. The Navy authorities right now are not saying anything more about the condition of the Ehime Maru, but this is good news for those families who really were just recently, about six or seven hours ago, when we met with them at a news conference, were just very, very upset at the pace of this investigation.

They're also upset, and this won't go away, about the fact that civilians were not only on the submarine, but that two civilians were in control stations when this accident happened. But they have really felt as if this investigation is not being given the priority it should.

U.S. Navy will deny that, but the fact is that this is a major discovery, and this is something these families wanted very much, for the ship to be located.

Kyra, back to you.

PHILLIPS: Gary, if indeed Scorpio II does locate the victims' bodies on this vessel through its video images, will the vessel be raised up, and will the bodies be recovered?

TUCHMAN: Well, let's put it this way. The U.S. Navy is saying they will do everything it can to recover each and every one of these nine victims who are still missing. However, they are not saying and are not committed to raising this entire ship. They don't even know if it's physically possible to lift this 499-foot trawler -- 499-ton trawler, we should say.

However, they may lift pieces of it. These robotic vehicles are capable of lifting up 250 pounds of wreckage at a time. But no one is committing yet to raising the trawler. They are committed to doing everything they can to recovering all the victims who may still be on the trawler.

PHILLIPS: All right, Gary Tuchman live from Honolulu, thank you -- Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now let's go to Tokyo for the Japanese reaction to the discovery of the sunken wreckage of the Ehime Maru. Our Tokyo bureau chief, Marina Kamimura, on the line with us with the latest from there.

Has the news filtered out much yet, Marina?

MARINA KAMIMURA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Miles, actually the news filtered out here when it came directly from the U.S. authorities to the Japanese, so it has been on the top newscasts here in Japan. Likely to be greeted with a mixture of relief and sorrow all through this long search process.

The Japanese, especially the relatives, as Gary mentioned, have demanded that the boat be salvaged, initially some hoping that there might be a chance that the missing, if indeed they were trapped inside, that there might be some chance that they might somehow be alive, even though they were told very early on in this ordeal that the ship was likely lying in an area hundreds of meters or yards below the water surface, as it's indeed been proven.

As the days went by, though, some of the relatives say they just wanted the boat lifted, even if it only meant to retrieve the remains of their loved ones, should they be trapped inside.

All along, Tokyo basically pushing the U.S. side to keep on with the search, and basically this is partially a cultural thing. There was this feeling that no matter how futile a rescue operation may seem, here, with already a week gone by since the accident occurred, that even if there was the slightest chance that some of the missing may be found alive, the Japanese wanted the search to go.

Indeed, that's what Tokyo has told Washington, that public opinion will be necessary -- necessitated that the search continue, even though at one point the U.S. Coast Guard seemed to be leaning towards ending the search earlier in the week.

Basically, the relatives in particular not being able to rest until at least those nine missing are found, either alive or dead. Of course, four of them being high school students, two teachers, and three crew of that Japanese training vessel, the Ehime Maru -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Tremendous amount of anger directed at the U.S. government, I suspect, Marina. Is that abating at all as time goes on?

KAMIMURA: Well, when we say there's tremendous anger, tremendous anger mainly on the part of those relatives, mainly concentrated in that city of Uwajima, where this high school, the Uwajima Fisheries School, was located.

In general, the public reaction has been -- I'm talking about the general Japanese public reaction -- has been much in line with the official reaction not being -- they -- the feeling that -- at least the -- what Tokyo's been saying is that they take it for what this is, as awful a tragedy as this seems to be, as a tragic accident that obviously shouldn't have happened, and nobody wanted to have happened.

So in terms of that anger, that anger on the part of the relatives obviously will not fade away. The shock, initial shock, though, that was felt here by the Japanese public has subsided. There will be demands, though, to find out exactly what happened, what triggered this accident between the USS Greeneville and the Ehime Maru -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Marina Kamimura on the line with us from Tokyo, thanks very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

 Search   


Back to the top