JAPAN: US SUBMARINE ACCIDENT LATEST

Описание: (28 Feb 2001) Eng/Jap/Nat

A special U.S. envoy hand-delivered a letter from President George W. Bush to Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on Tuesday to apologize for the sinking of a high school training boat by a U.S. submarine.

Admiral William J. Fallon, the vice chief of naval operations, arrived Tuesday afternoon at Yokota Air Base, a U.S. military facility on the outskirts of Tokyo, and was also scheduled to meet with families of the nine Japanese missing in the accident.

"It is my intention to use every opportunity while in Japan to convey the sincere apologies of the president of the United States and the Navy and all American citizens," Fallon said after a brief meeting with Mori on Tuesday evening.

Fallon handed over Bush's letter to Mori, who asked that the United States do the utmost to salvage the sunken Japanese fishing vessel and give a full account of the Feb. 9 collision.

Fallon met with the family members on Wednesday morning at US Ambassador Thomas Foley's residence in Tokyo..

Fallon, the No. 2 officer in the Navy, was to also meet other government officials and hold a press conference before leaving Thursday.

Despite repeated expressions of regret over the accident by American officials, many of the relatives of the missing have demanded a direct apology, and Fallon's visit was an attempt to assuage that anger.

Officials here will also be looking for an explanation over the causes of the accident off the island of Oahu, and there are also questions over why the U.S. was so slow to reveal that civilian guests were at the controls of the sub.

Nine people, including four students, remain missing and are presumed dead.

Though the sub's commander on Sunday issued a statement expressing his "most sincere regret" for the accident, relatives of the missing said they won't accept an apology unless it is made in person.

The nine missing were among 35 people on board the Ehime Maru fishing vessel when it sank shortly after it was struck by the USS Greeneville.

Upon arriving Tuesday, Fallon said that Bush's letter expressed "our nations apologies and regret." He added that while in Japan he would update officials and relatives on U.S. efforts to recover the sunken Japanese vessel and determine why the accident occurred.

"I know my words cannot express the profound sorrow and regret that the American people feel over this tragic event," Fallon said in a statement upon arrival.

"By coming from Washington to be here in person, I seek not only to apologize, but to promote better understanding between the people of our two nations."

Bush's decision to send Fallon reflects the importance Washington places on its security alliance with Japan, which hosts about 50,000 U.S. troops.

The U.S. Seventh Fleet operates from a base just south of Tokyo, which is also used by American submarines.

Those ties have been strained recently by a series of crimes by U.S. military personnel and a statement by the top Marine on Okinawa, who called local leaders "wimps" and a "bunch of nuts" in an e-mail to his staff after a Marine was arrested for lifting a schoolgirl's skirt last month.

He later apologized, but the uproar has yet to die down and several local assemblies have passed resolutions demanding the U.S. military presence on Okinawa be reduced or withdrawn altogether.

The Ehime Maru was operated by a high school for aspiring sailors in Uwajima, a small fishing village about 700 kilometers (430 miles) southwest of Tokyo.

UPSOUND: (English)
SUPER CAPTION: Admiral William Fallon, US Navy

UPSOUND: (Japanese)



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