Word: uwajima
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Dates: during 2001-2001
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...people of Uwajima know the sea. Located at the western tip of rural Shikoku Island, they go out to fish in nearby waters and culture pearls in the bay. From their history they understand that the ocean can be capricious and cruel...
...nothing prepared them for the shock of hearing that an American submarine, nuclear-powered and laden with the world's most sophisticated electronic gear, sprang without warning out of the waters near Hawaii, smashing into and sinking the Ehime Maru, a training vessel from the Uwajima Fisheries High School. Nine local men and boys are still lost at sea. As more and more incomprehensible details about the incident became known?the surfacing exercise was for the entertainment of visitors, two civilians were at the controls, the submarine crew appeared to make no effort to take survivors aboard, the search...
...disbelief has turned to anger, not only in Uwajima but throughout Japan. In the first instance, the understandable object of hostility was the American military. The Japanese, transformed into pacifists by a disastrous war, are profoundly suspicious of military institutions, including their own. In 1988 when a Japanese submarine struck and sank a pleasure boat in Tokyo Bay and sailors stood by while 30 passengers drowned, a wave of resentment against the military swept the country. In recent years American service personnel in Okinawa?who make up half of the 47,000 stationed in Japan?have been similarly subjected...
...between Tokyo and Washington buzzed with American apologies?from President George W. Bush and a host of senior officials. But the man at the other end of the line, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, himself is lacking credibility. "He is beyond contempt," says Yoshifumi Oshita, 26, a graduate of the Uwajima Fisheries High School. "I want the Japanese government to make a proper complaint to America but I don't think Mori...