The search continues for the 20 missing crew members of the Panamanian flagged, Nasco Diamond, after the vessel carrying 50 thousand tons of nickel ore sank early Wednesday in calm seas about 200 miles off Japan’s Iriomote island. Five members of the twenty-five man all-Chinese crew have been rescued so far. Of the five who have been recovered, two have since died. Rescuers from Japan, China, and Taiwan are taking part in the search.
The incident is the latest story fueling the fire over the dispute between China and Japan sparked by THIS VIDEO, showing a collision between a Chinese fishing trawler and Japanese Coast Guard vessel off the disputed Diaoyu or Senkaku Islands in September. The video, which was admittedly leaked by a member of the Japanese Coast Guard on Youtube last week, had only been previously viewed by a handful of Japanese lawmakers and prosecutors. The captain of the Chinese fishing trawler was detained by Japanese authorities following the Sept. 7 collision, but was later released without charges.
This latest news leads us to the question: What the hell is going on in the Western Pacific??