Nine people, including three crew members, four high school students, and two teachers were lost at sea when the Greeneville collided from below with the 191-foot training vessel.

A partial account of what led up to the incident has been released by investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). At the time the Greeneville was engaged in a practice emergency surfacing drill. In this "ballast blow" maneuver, the submarine ascended for a 90-second periscope check of the surface, descended to a depth of 405 feet, then filled its ballast tanks with air. The ascent from there to the surface took around 50 seconds. On the Ehime Maru, the impact felt "like iron being shredded," said its captain. Within 10 minutes the ship had sunk.

In Japan, the image of the sinking "is like that of a school bus being run over by a tank," said Japanese embassy official Hiroko Hakoda in Washington, choosing his words deliberately as he emphasized that the Japanese boat was "a high school training vessel." A CNN report explained that Japanese officials say calling the ship "a fishing boat or trawler --as the Navy has done from time to time--doesn't do justice to the accident."

On March 5, almost four weeks after the sinking, the U.S. Navy convened an inquiry into the affair, charged with determining "any fault, neglect or responsibility" for the collision. The inquiry was originally scheduled to begin on February 26, but was delayed a week to allow time for the Greeneville's captain, Cmdr. Scott Waddle, to prepare a defense.

Three admirals of the U.S. Navy are officiating in the inquiry. They are joined by one Japanese admiral, who is permitted to ask questions but will have no vote in the decision on whether to proceed with prosecution. Waddle, meantime, has requested "testimonial immunity." If this is granted, his testimony cannot be used against him in any future criminal prosecution.

"I would like to know...if the court can really serve justice, and determine who was responsible," commented Tatsuyoshi Mizuguchi, whose son was lost at sea.  
 
Trip to entertain visitors
Shortly before the naval inquiry convened, it was revealed that the sole purpose of the Greeneville's trip that day was to entertain 16 visitors. All the guests were crammed into the sub's control room for the surfacing maneuver; at least three were given equipment to operate under supervision.

The NTSB investigation has also found that key equipment was out of action, and has raised questions about whether officers scrutinized information from sonar checks that showed the surface was not clear.

Apologies for the sinking have been offered by a succession of U.S. officials, including Waddle; the U.S. Ambassador to Japan; the navy's second-ranking officer, Adm. William Fallon; Secretary of State Colin Powell; and President George Bush.

Some capitalist figures in Japan either reacted with initial indifference to the deaths, or exploited the widespread anger at the conduct of the U.S. military to press their arguments in favor of a more independent role for the Japanese armed forces.

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori of the Liberal Democratic Party damaged his already rock-bottom public standing when, on hearing news of the collision, he refused to interrupt his game of golf.

In the wake of the collision and the nine deaths, sentiment against the occupation of Japan by 47,000 U.S. troops, has gained in strength. The majority of the troops are stationed on the island of Okinawa, imposed on the fishermen, farmers, and other working people there by Tokyo in collaboration with Washington.

The island's representative in the national parliament, Kantoku Teruyu, said on February 22, "The reduction of the marines' presence is the general desire of the Okinawan people."  
 
Washington pressures Tokyo
Washington has pressed Tokyo to assume more responsibility in policing the region for imperialism, while remaining subordinate to the U.S. military. Late last year a bipartisan group of U.S. scholars and defense analysts, headed by Richard Armitage, now deputy secretary of state, released a report terming the formal restrictions on Japan's military "a constraint on alliance cooperation."

The Japanese rulers agree that they must boost the country's military, increase its freedom of movement in the region, and eventually drop the prohibition on using it in any but a defensive way. Japan's "Self-Defense Forces," as the armed forces are officially known, number around 237,000 troops, and boast a budget that ranks among the top five in the world.

The Japanese imperialists have expanded their technical expertise as well, helping them to become more independent from Washington. "A couple of years ago we decided to launch our own intelligence-gathering satellite," said Masashi Nishihara, president of Japan's National Defense Academy. He added, "We have launched a large transport ship, which some people have claimed is a kind of aircraft carrier. And we have just approved purchase of in-flight refueling tankers, which expand Japan's defense perimeter.

"Of course," said Nishihara, "the government doesn't talk about a defense perimeter, but says that it is meant to increase our ability to support peacekeeping operations."

The satellite development caused "unease" in Washington, the New York Times reported February 23. The U.S. government would have preferred that Tokyo had bought the equipment "from the United States or [had continued to] rely entirely on American intelligence," the Times article noted.

The U.S. government's drive to establish a "missile shield" has also become an issue in the debate in Japan. Missiles are likely to be stationed on Japanese soil under any scheme proposed by Washington. A $10-million-a-year joint research program on the technology is under way, in spite of Tokyo's official neutrality on the issue.

"Suppose a missile was launched from North Korea aimed at the United States," said military analyst Futoshi Shibayama earlier this year, repeating the pretext used by Washington for the new development. "To shoot it down would be unconstitutional. I think we should try to introduce a new interpretation of the Japanese constitution. But this would be a big domestic controversy."

Takako Doi, the leader of the opposition Social Democratic Party, noted the same problem confronting the Japanese rulers. Involvement in the "missile shield" will "increase Japan's military power," he said. "In all the polls, the majority of the population is against strengthening the military."

Tokyo faces opposition to its efforts to strengthen its armed forces not only among working people in Japan, but also throughout Asia. The brutal conquest and rule of many countries by the Japanese armed forces in the last century until the end of the second World War remains a vivid memory throughout the region. Tokyo was reminded of this recently when protests were organized in Taiwan against a comic book by a Japanese cartoonist that misrepresents the reaction on the island to Tokyo's occupation during World War II. One of the book's scenes portrays Taiwanese women as willing volunteers for service in military brothels.

Korean historians from both the south and north of the country have exposed plans by the Japanese government to publish school textbooks that "whitewash" Tokyo's military aggression as an act of "liberation." Their March 2 statement, issued during a seminar in Pyongyang on the 82nd anniversary of the Korean independence movement against Japanese colonial rule, demanded that "Japan apologize to the Korean people for even considering such a scheme."  
 
 
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