U.S. Navy refuses to admit its ship's was at fault in the Ehime Maru sinking

The U.S. Navy refuses to admit that there was serious negligence on its
part in the February collision off Hawaii between a U.S. nuclear submarine
and a Japanese training trawler, according to lawyers representing the
bereaved families of the Japanese victims.

Uwajima Fisheries High School's training ship Ehime Maru was hit and sunk
by the U.S. submarine Greenville on February 9 (local time) off Pearl
Harbor.

Arguing that the U.S. Navy is taking an insincere attitude toward the
victims' families, the lawyers suggested that they may end the negotiations
and sue the U.S. Navy.

The lawyers for Terada Ryosuke and Furuya Toshimichi, whose sons were
killed while they were on board the Ehime Maru, made this statement.

Referring to the day's negotiations in Tokyo on October 31, Toyota
Makoto, chief lawyer, revealed that the U.S. Navy side stated that the
incident was not a case of gross negligence but an accident. They didn't
respond to the demands that consolation money be included in compensation by
the U.S., he added.

Toyota said, "Now that the negotiations are at a deadlock, the lawyers
will finish negotiations and bring this before the court, if the bereaved
families want to do so." (end)