The United States is determined to find out the cause of last Friday's accident in which a Japanese fisheries training ship was sunk when it was hit by a surfacing U.S. submarine off Hawaii, U.S. Ambassador Thomas Foley said in an interview with The Japan Times.
At the same time, Foley, who will leave his post around March 1 after three years and four months as the U.S. envoy, voiced confidence that overall bilateral ties will not be hurt by the accident, saying, "I believe the U.S.-Japan relationship will survive this most recent tragic accident."
Foley cited the U.S. government's repeated apologies over the accident, in which nine of the 35 people aboard the Ehime Maru remain unaccounted for. He also said an investigation into why the USS Greeneville hit the ship during its emergency surfacing drill has been launched upon President George W. Bush's orders, adding that its results will be made available to the Japanese government.