Students of Uwajima Fisheries High School offers flowers to the memorial monument in the schoolyard on Feb. 10. (Tatsuro Kanai)
Nine Japanese words are inscribed on a stone monument at the entrance to Uwajima Fisheries High School in Ehime Prefecture to mourn nine people who died in a collision between the fishery school’s training ship and a U.S. submarine in 2001.
The words are: umi (sea), inochi (life), ai (love) yujo (friendship), kibo (hope), heiwa (peace), inori (prayer), yasuragi (peace of mind) and eien (eternity).
Twenty years ago, the U.S. Navy nuclear submarine USS Greeneville collided with the training ship Ehime Maru off Hawaii. The accident killed nine people on board the ship, including students and teachers of the school.
A memorial service has been held to mark the 20th anniversary of the sinking of a Japanese fisheries school training vessel off Hawaii by a US navy nuclear submarine.