Ehime Maru kin and rescuers gather at memorial

More than 250 people from Japan and Hawaii came together in Kakaako on Thursday to remember the nine men and boys killed on the Japanese high school fisheries training vessel Ehime Maru when it was struck and sunk 16 years ago by the rapidly ascending submarine USS Greeneville.

In Buddhist tradition the event year and the third, seventh, 13th, 17th, 33rd and 50th anniversaries are auspicious occasions for honoring the deceased, bringing extra importance to Thursday’s observance, considered the “17th anniversary,” officials said.

Ken Saiki, director of the Ehime Maru Memorial Association, said, “The next one will be the 33rd, and that’s 16 years (from now). Many people may not be around. It’s really a long time. So the 17th is really an important one.”

A moment of silence was held at 1:43 p.m., the exact moment on Feb. 9, 2001, when the Greeneville, longer than a football field, cleaved through the Japanese vessel 9 nautical miles south of Diamond Head. Twenty-six on board survived, but nine others — including four high school students — died.

Tatsuyoshi Mizuguchi, father of 17-year-old Takeshi Mizuguchi, who was on the Ehime Maru and whose body was never recovered, told those assembled that he was “so grateful that this special ceremony was held.”

Nearly 100 individuals came in from Japan for the event at the hillside Ehime Maru Memorial at Kakaako Waterfront Park overlooking the wide expanse of ocean south of Oahu.

“Over the 16 years a variety of things have happened to us, too,” Mizuguchi, speaking for the families, said via an interpreter. “We have lost family members. We have some of us lost good friends and someone we highly respect. But on the other hand, our children have grown up. We had many weddings, and they are bringing new life into our families.”

All these years later the bonds that have developed between Hawaii and Japan after the accident through the Ehime Maru Memorial Association and Japan- America Society of Hawaii have continuously provided a warm welcome for the visiting families.

Ehime prefecture Gov. Tokihiro Nakamura said, “It is very hard for the bereaved families to come to terms with the great loss (to) their families,” but added that the accident led to a “greater friendship bridging the Hawaiian people and Ehime people.”

Hawaii Gov. David Ige noted that in 2003 the state and Ehime prefecture signed a sister-state-prefecture agreement. Exchanges with Ehime have followed.

The names of the deceased were read aloud, wreaths were presented, ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro played a piece for the families, and nearly 20 of the family members placed their own flowers at the memorial, then bowed to their fallen loved ones and those in attendance.

Even during the ceremony there were reminders of Hawaii’s significant military presence on Oahu, a concentration that 16 years ago put the Greeneville and Ehime Maru on a collision course. Part of Bishop Clark Watanabe’s invocation was nearly drowned out by several F-22 Raptor fighters roaring nearly straight up into the sky.

At the time of the accident, the Greeneville had 16 “distinguished visitors” aboard — described as business high rollers — and was demonstrating steep ascents and descents, “angles and dangles” in Navy jargon, as well as an emergency main ballast tank blow, a maneuver that caused the 6,900-ton submarine to rocket to the surface.

As a result of rushed procedures, the Ehime Maru was in its path. The Greeneville’s steel rudder, reinforced to punch through Arctic ice, cut through the underbelly of the 190-foot Ehime Maru.

The ship’s captain, Cmdr. Scott Waddle, was not tried at court-martial, but was found guilty at an “admiral’s mast” of dereliction of duty and negligent hazarding of a vessel.

The Navy spent $60 million to recover the Ehime Maru from 2,000 feet and eight of nine missing crew, $11.47 million for compensation to Ehime prefecture, $16.5 million to compensate families and $2 million to repair the Greeneville.

The significant recovery effort mounted by the Navy and Coast Guard was and is still appreciated by the families, and individual U.S. military members were singled out in the ceremony program, along with comments from a few.

“I was the lead diver on the recovery team,” said the Navy’s William Crider during the program. “I think of the families often, and I know all of us who participated in the recovery mission wish we would have been able to find Takeshi Mizuguchi. Please let the family know they are in our thoughts and prayers.”

Tatsuyoshi Mizuguchi, the bereft father, also noted the close bonds that have developed between people in Hawaii and the families.

“We have made friends who we met at the time of the accident, and we have since become good, good friends and they are a strong support to us,” he said. “I believe that the nine spirits are helping us keep the friendship together.”