Japan's prime minister, Yoshiro Mori, came under fire yesterday from politicians and press for continuing with a game of golf after hearing a US nuclear submarine had struck and sunk a Japanese trawler packed with students.
"I don't know how the prime minister first heard of it, but I think he should have stopped playing golf immediately and returned to his office," Takenori Kanzaki, leader of the New Komeito party and the key partner in Mori's ruling coalition, told a television talkshow.
Tanzaki's was not a lone voice.
Most major newspapers carried front-page stories and editorials attacking Japan's most unpopular prime minister in years for his decision to finish a round of gold on Saturday morning after he heard that the Japanese trawler had sunk off Hawaii.
Nine people, including four 17-year-old students from a fisheries school, were still missing yesterday more than 24 hours after the 6,900-tonne US nuclear attack submarine USS Greeneville surfaced and struck the 499-tonne Ehime Maru off Hawaii.
Mori insisted his decision had been correct, saying it would not do to get flustered in moments of crisis.
"It would not get any of us anywhere if I rushed to [the prime minister's official residence] and got all flustered, without receiving reports," Mori told reporters on Saturday.
"We took the safest course of action."
Mori, who had been playing golf at a country club near Yokohama received word of the accident at around 10:30am and left for Tokyo shortly before 1pm.
"Prime Minister waits four hours" screamed the headline on the front page of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.
Newspapers leapt on Mori's decision, quoting defense experts and political analysts as saying the prime minister took too long to grasp the gravity of the situation.
The timing could hardly be worse. A survey of voters by the daily Mainichi Shimbun last week showed support for Mori, battered by scandals that have felled three Cabinet ministers and his reputation for blunders, at a mere 14 percent.
Meanwhile yesterday Japan urged the US yesterday to consider raising the Ehime Maru.
Search vessels and helicopters continued scouring the choppy seas despite fading hopes of finding the nine still missing from the boat.
"The first priority is the rescue of the nine missing people," Mori told reporters.
Search vessels and helicopters continued scouring the choppy seas despite fading hopes.
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