It has been 20 years since the accident occurred on the tenth (ninth local time) when Yonehara Submarine collided with the training ship Ehime Maru of the Ehime Uwajima Prefectural Secondary School of Fishing (Uwajima City, Ehime Prefecture) off the Hawaiian coast in the United States. and killed nine students. Due to the new coronavirus, the participation of grieving families and city officials in the memorial ceremony held in Hawaii this year was canceled. Although there are concerns about the weather, the exchange between the two parties, which was born after the accident, continues steadily.

On January 26, 14 freshmen from the Department of Marine Technology and students from Moanalua High School in Hawaii presented the school life and culture of each other using the “Zoom” video conferencing system. The International Ehime Association has invited Hawaiian college students to Ehime every summer since 2006, but in response to crown disease, it attempted online exchange between high school students for the first time. The association has also been sending high school students to Hawaii since 2013.

Ehime Prefecture and Hawaii, which have deepened their relationship with the support of victims after the accident, signed sister affiliations in 2003, and the cities of Uwajima and Honolulu in 2004. Noriko Omori, 64, a staff member of the association said: “The exchange program started with the accident. We have taken the younger generation into the background and continue to prevent the accident from eroding.”

Uwajima Fisheries High School also provides students the opportunity to view the lifebuoys and accident log books stored in the school’s reference room so they can learn about the misery of the accident and inherit the learned lessons. The school will hold a retirement ceremony on the 10th, taking action against the crown. It will drop in Hawaii this year.

The accident occurred off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii in 2001. Ehime Maru, who was practicing in the open ocean, sank after being struck by the emergency surface of the Yonehara Submarine Green Building, killing a total of nine apprentices, teachers and sailors. In 2005, the US side published an investigative report on the cause of the accident, such as the fact that a civilian who was on an experimental trip in a nuclear submarine hampered the safety confirmation.

Yoshiro Mori, chairman of the Tokyo Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, was the prime minister at the time of the accident, and even after receiving news of the accident, he continued to play golf and was criticized, which contributed to his resignation. . . Currently, Mr. Mori is being criticized both nationally and internationally for his disdain for women. (Joint)