US sub captain meets victims' family

Scott Waddle apologised for the accident

The former captain of an American nuclear submarine that sank a Japanese training boat has reportedly met the parents of one of those killed in the fatal accident.

The meeting followed Commander Waddle's emotional visit on Sunday to a monument to the four students and five crew members who died when the USS Greeneville struck the Ehime Maru off the coast of Hawaii last February.

Commander Waddle had allowed a visitor to take the helm during a demonstration of an emergency drill that caused the crash.

Most of the victims' families have said they do not want to meet him, and some have voiced criticism that he has not come sooner.

Tearful apology

Commander Waddle met Ryosuke and Masumi Terata in Tokyo, away from the victims' hometown of Uwajima, in order to respect the wishes of other relatives, AP news agency said.

He expressed condolences for their son, Yusuke, who was a member of the Ehime Maru's crew.

On Sunday, the former navy captain laid a wreath at a fishing school in Uwajima about 680 kilometres (420 miles) south west of Tokyo.

The students may never forgive Waddle, but I hope his apology can help their recovery

Psychiatrist Masaharu Maeda

He also met and apologised to four former students who survived the accident.

Witnesses said he offered a tearful apology in his 30-minute meeting with the former students.

Commander Waddle was reprimanded after the accident but was allowed to retire at full rank, raising criticism in Japan that he had not been adequately punished.

Healing process

Psychiatrist Masaharu Maeda, who has been treating the survivors, told AP that the students had been tense and angry and had demanded to know what caused the sinking.

"The students may never forgive Waddle, but I hope his apology can help their recovery," he said. "I believe none of them regretted they came to meet him."

Most of the families of the victims have agreed to an American offer of compensation. Some relatives said that an apology was a condition of reaching a settlement.