OKINAWA (TR) – The captain of a small boat concerned in a deadly capsizing off the coast of Henoko final month has damaged his silence, shifting the blame for the tragedy onto a deceased colleague whereas closely intoxicated at an area bar.
On March 16, two small vessels — the Heiwa Maru and the Fukutsu — carrying 21 folks, together with college students from Doshisha International High School, capsized off Nago City. The catastrophe claimed the lives of 17-year-old pupil Tomoka Takeishi and the 71-year-old captain of the Fukutsu, Hajime Kanai. The vessels have been being operated by a gaggle protesting the relocation of U.S. army bases to Henoko.
The Japan Coast Guard is presently investigating the incident beneath suspicion {of professional} negligence leading to dying and harm. Focus has closely centered on the surviving captain of the Heiwa Maru, the boat the teenage sufferer had boarded.
The surviving captain, a person in his late 40s from Nakijin Village and a former village meeting candidate for the Japanese Communist Party who has participated within the protests for a decade, ignored reporters throughout a police web site inspection on March 22. However, he was tracked right down to an area “snack” bar that very same night time.
According to Shukan Shincho (Apr. 2), the intoxicated captain emerged from the institution and instantly grew belligerent.
“Stop it. I’m drinking,” he yelled at reporters.
When pressed on why the boats set sail regardless of an lively wave advisory, the captain grew defensive. “The wave advisory has been out all the time. For three months. Does this mean we can’t take the boat out?” he retorted. “It was calm. I wasn’t the one who decided it.”
Instead, he firmly pinned the accountability on the deceased captain, Kanai.
“It was his decision. It’s not up to me,” he stated. “I don’t have the right to decide. If it was a maritime action [by the protest group], I might be able to say, ‘Isn’t this a bit dangerous?’ But it was Kanai’s decision.”
The captain additionally slammed a latest press convention held by the Anti-Helicopter Base Council, which claimed the choice to sail was made by the group’s “maritime team.”
“That’s why I’m saying it wasn’t the maritime team. Did you hear that from Kanai? From a dead person?” he sneered. “You better wake up the dead and ask him. You better wake up Kanai and ask him.”
Dismissing the protest group’s public statements as “wrong” and “ambiguous,” the captain’s anger ultimately gave technique to tears.
“I thought about dying at that time,” he shouted earlier than concluding the change. “I can’t tell you any more. Leave me alone. I’ll talk when the time comes.”
The Coast Guard’s investigation into the operational protocols and security failures of the anti-base protest group stays ongoing.