The nuclear submarine USS Greeneville has inflicted damage on much more than the hull of the fishery training vessel Ehime-maru. Because of the controversy in Japan that arose over this incident, many Japanese have been confronted with the reality that the ties between Japan and the United States, while usually characterized as an alliance, have long been patched together by no more than a flimsy band-aid. Upon removing that band-aid, we rediscover three unhealed wounds that were inflicted by the shared traumas of sixty years past, fifty years past, and of twenty years past. Although the US and Japan have these wounds in common, each country remembers them differently. It is that very process of remembrance that has kept them alive.
Remember back to 1945 to discover the first wound. At dawn on December 7, five Japanese human torpedoes were released by Japanese Navy submarines located 10-19 kilometers due south of the entrance to Pearl Harbor, and aimed at the US naval ships docked there. According to a map in Japanese Defense Agency publication , this attack occurred approximately at the same location where the Ehime-maru was hit. A similar map found in The Attack on Pearl Harbor (available in the USS Arizona Memorial Museum Gift Shop) further labels this as the location where the US destroyer Ward sited Japanese midget subs and subsequently fired on them and attacked them with depth charges. Thus, the author concludes, this incident constitutes the very first shot by the United States in the Pacific War. Subsequently, many US Naval ships were sunk by Japanese air and underwater attack. Of these, the USS Arizona suffered eight direct hits and lost 1177 crewman (out of a total of 1731).
Now, a memorial museum stands directly over the remains of the battleship Arizona, and it is a popular tourist destination with visitors to Hawaii--especially for Americans. In the 1990s, one other famous historical vessel was moored not far from the Arizona: the USS Missouri, the ship where the Japan and the Allies signed the instruments of surrender after WWII in September, 1945. If the USS Arizona stands as evidence of Japan's "surprise attack" against the United States, then the Missouri exists as a symbol of the United State's successful revenge against that attack and its ultimate victory. Some of the civilian visitors who were aboard the USS Greeneville on the day of the accident were members of the USS Missouri Memorial Association.
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