About 260 people attended a memorial service at the high school on Wednesday. Students and bereaved family members were among them. They observed a minute of silence at 8:43 a.m., the exact time of the accident. A bell from the sunken ship was rung nine times in memory of the nine victims.

School principal Takechi Seiji read out the victims' names. He said that even the passage of 20 years has not assuaged the resentment and grief over the accident, because one can still imagine how sad the victims felt.

He said the accident must not be forgotten.

Many people offered flowers.

Second-year student Fukumoto Shoken said the accident occurred before he was born, so he did not learn about it until after he enrolled in high school. He said he hopes many people will hear about the tragedy.

In the United States, the former commander of the submarine, Scott Waddle, wrote an open letter to the families of those who died in the collision.

He said the purpose of the note was to "apologize to the families who lost loved ones, apologize to those aboard the Ehime Maru who were injured."

Waddle said he wanted to make it clear that he was solely responsible for the accident. He wrote, "The collision was avoidable, and I failed in my duties as the captain to prevent it."

He said he has carried the shame, sorrow, burden, and remorse every day since then, and will do so until the day he dies.