With assistance from Point Slocum the two cutters poured machine gun fire into the grounded trawler.
The question of the time spent at periscope depth is central in the investigation into the collision, which sank the trawler, a training vessel named the Ehime Maru, leaving nine people, including four teenage students, missing and presumed dead.
A local election held in September, in the midst of the trawler standoff, turned into a bitterly fought referendum over whether to accept the garrison, with supporters winning four of the six town council seats up for grabs.
One of the medics, who arrived at the scene after the trawler had disappeared into the sea, said: "We found, literally, a floating cemetery.
So, wearing a protective Lycra catsuit that would make Terry Wogan blush, I perched on the side of the trawler and tumbled backwards into Blue Pearl Bay, beneath the rocky cliffs of Hayman Island in the Whitsundays.
Mr. Hall said that as the trawler's passengers spilled into the sea in life rafts, the submarine officers did not know at first if they were Japanese or Chinese and asked if any civilian spoke either language and could help the crews communicate.
After the collision, Japan took the trawler and its crew into detention.
Following his appearance at Croydon Crown Court, Cantona famously told the media: "When the seagulls follow the trawler, it's because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea".
He enigmatically replied: "When the seagulls follow the trawler, it's because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.
It was at this point that he uttered his now infamous statement that "when the seagulls follow the trawler it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea".
