A troubling picture is beginning to emerge as details are revealed about conditions aboard the USS Greeneville when the submarine hit the training vessel Ehime Maru last week. That accident left nine students and instructors aboard the fisheries training ship missing -- they are presumed dead -- and injured a dozen others. It is too early to rush to judgment, but we, along with the rest of the nation, await the results of a full and open investigation. The trust, friendship and alliance between our two countries may well depend on it.

The chief question hanging over the events is: What effect did the presence of 16 civilians have on the submarine's operations that day? It is disturbing to know that civilians were present in critical areas of the Greeneville at the time of the accident. It boggles the mind to discover that those individuals actually had their hands on controls as the submarine undertook maneuvers that are routinely described as "dramatic." That word only hints at the dangers involved, and in this case those dangers were not the ones originally intended.

The U.S. Navy insists that the presence of the civilians had no influence on actual operations aboard the submarine. Furthermore, while conceding that two people were at the controls, there was "hands-on" supervision at all times and the civilians did not contribute to the mishap. That, of course, is the key question.