U.S. sub's collision with Japanese tanker shows danger posed by military use of busy sea-lane

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U.S. sub's collision with Japanese tanker shows danger posed by military use of busy sea-lane

The U.S. nuclear-powered attack submarine Newport News collided with the Japanese 160,229-ton oil tanker Mogamigawa owned by Kawasaki Kisen Ltd. near the busy sea-lane of the Strait of Hormuz located at the entrance to the Persian Gulf on January 8.

This accident caused damage five meters long and one meter wide at the bottom of the Mogamigawa, which had to sail to the United Arab Emirates to undergo an emergency repair of the damage.

This accident shows the serious danger faced by tankers sailing the Gulf whose number reaches as many as 25,000 a year.

The Newport News, which accompanies the U.S. aircraft carrier Eisenhower, has been taking part in the U.S. anti-terrorism war in "maritime security operations" in the northern Arabian Sea that includes the Strait of Hormuz.

It is very mysterious that the submarine failed to notice a huge tanker such as the 333-meter Mogamigawa. Tankers have no means to detect submarines.

The submarine is fully responsible for the accident, and the U.S. government must thoroughly investigate.

If the sub was going underwater in the Strait of Hormuz, an international strait, as part of military operations, it violated the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The Convention provides warships with the right of transit passage through international straits, but it is not unconditional. Even warships in fighting wars are not exempt from the responsibilities stipulated in the Convention. The U.S. government must make clear whether or not the Newport News violated the Convention.

Immediately after the accident took place, the U.S. submarine opened communications with the Mogamigawa, but it refused to reveal its identity.

Annually, Japan imports more than 200 million tons of crude oil from the Persian Gulf area, and some 2,500 Japanese tankers pass the Strait of Hormuz.

The abnormal situation in which armed forces are doing whatever they like in an international strait must be discontinued.
- Akahata, January 13, 2007