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Yesterday, April 23, 2001 the United States Navy handed down it's punishment to USS Greeneville Commander Scott Waddle, whose submarine accidentally sunk a Japanese fishing vessel resulting in the deaths of nine innocent Japanese civilians, many of them children. I believe this punishment was a minor slap on the wrist for his direct conduct which caused the deaths of innocent people on the Ehime Maru, though the Japanese government said the punishment issue was closed.
Waddle, the captain of the submarine was given a letter of reprimand and told he would have to forfeit half of his pay for two months; until his retirement in October, with full pension benefits. This seems to be woefully inadequate to me for someone who publically admitted responsibility in the sinking and resulting deaths. The lack of a court martial will only make matters worse for the families looking for closure in this tragic so-called accident.
Waddle was interviewed by Stone Phillips and freely admitted that he was late and in a hurry to get his cargo of civilians back to Pearl Harbor. He directly admitted to scanning the surface of the ocean for eighty seconds through the periscope, when the usual time was three minutes, more than twice the time he spent. This act spells dereliction of duty in my opinion and warrants a court martial at the very minimum and not just appearing before the so-called " mast ", to be punished in such a pitifully inadequate manner. To be sure, if this had been an American vessel with United States citizens killed, JAG would still be trying the case in court, or the ambulance chasers we all love to hate would be rushing to file nine multi-million dollar wrongful death lawsuits. This was not an accident but a case of negligence.
Families of the dead and survivors had dramatically different reactions than that of their government.
It was being reported that Ryosuke Terata, whose 17-year-old son, Yusuke, was killed said, " It's unforgivable that the matter should be settled with this sort of punishment after so many questions were left unanswered by the court of inquiry ".
Reportedly, Kazuhiko Segawa, son of 60-year-old Hirotaka Segawa, chief of communications aboard the Ehime Maru, and one of the accident's survivors, opined, " Since the captain was being judged by his peers, I wasn't expecting much to come out of the trial ".
Many in Japan, feel Waddle should have to " face a court-martial "!
Crying like a baby on national television, while offering up an apology; Waddle made a mockery of taking responsibility for one's actions, after being given the kind of penalty one gets for not making his bunk during a boot camp inspection. This man should have resigned his commission immediately, after his inaction directly caused the deaths of the nine Japanese!
I would love to scream Remember Pearl Harbor or the Baatan Death March, but the four teenagers, two teachers and others who were killed were not lost during a war, but because a poor excuse for a submarine captain cut corners and ultimately found out what happens when you are in a hurry and over look official procedures.
I liken what happened, Waddle not looking through the periscope long enough for a proper search and then smashing into the fishing boat; to a motorist coming to an intersection and only looking one way before plowing into a group of pedestrians walking from the other direction. This type of so-called accident would have surely resulted in multiple counts of vehicular manslaughter to the negligent operator, but in this case he gets off with only a minor traffic citiation?
- Bongo ( Dive dive...die? )
