Japanese families to visit wreck site

Japan has thanked the Navy for its rescue efforts

The families of the nine Japanese men and boys who were killed when their fishing boat was accidentally sunk by a US submarine are to visit the area where divers are working to recover the remains.

Six bodies have been recovered from the wreck of Ehime Maru, but divers have so far failed to find the other three.

It is thought at least two of them were swept away when the 190-foot (38-metre) training vessel sank off the Hawaiian island of Oahu in February.

Identified bodies

Toshimichi Furuya, 47, chief engineer

Hirotaka Segawa, 60, chief radio operator

Toshiya Sakashima, 17, student

Katsuya Nomoto, 17, student

Hiroshi Nishida, 49, first engineer

There was outrage in Japan when it emerged that the boat had been hit by a surfacing submarine, the USS Greeneville, during a demonstration of an emergency drill.

Lieutenant Commander Neil Sheehan, the Navy's liaison officer for the Japanese families, said officials would take the victims' families by boat to view the salvage area on Tuesday.

DNA tests

The nine victims - two teachers, four 17-year-old students and three crewmen - were from a fisheries high school in Uwajima, Japan. Twenty-six people survived the sinking.

Five of the bodies have been identified using dental records but the remains of the sixth individual - recovered on Saturday - were in such poor condition that a lengthy DNA investigation may be required to identify them.

The US Navy has spent $60m on the recovery operation. After months of preparation the Navy last week towed the boat to 35-metre-deep (115-feet) shallows so divers could enter the vessel.

By Monday almost half of the boat had been searched, said the divers' supervisor, Captain Christopher Murray. The search should be finished in about 10 days, he said.

After that, divers will work to recover personal effects, and then the Ehime Maru will be taken more than 10km (six miles) out to sea and allowed to sink.

On Monday Japan's parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs, Toshio Kojima, repeated an earlier statement thanking the US for its efforts to recover the bodies.