Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka will pay a weekend visit to Honolulu on her way back from San Francisco to encourage the salvage crew attempting to move the Ehime Maru, the Japanese fisheries training vessel sunk by a U.S. submarine in February, according to ministry officials.

Tanaka is scheduled to leave Japan for San Francisco on Friday to attend Saturday's commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which officially ended World War II. The event is being sponsored by a private group.

Also on Saturday, Tanaka and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell will host a separate ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, which was signed several hours after the peace treaty, the officials said.

A senior ministry official said Tanaka and Powell will hold a one-hour working lunch Saturday that will also be attended by Defense Agency chief Gen Nakatani.

Tanaka's speeches at the ceremonies will mainly be future-oriented, but they will also touch on Japan's gratitude toward the United States for its help in rebuilding after World War II, the official said. The San Francisco Peace Treaty was signed Sept. 8, 1951, by delegates from Japan and 47 other nations.

Tanaka will go to Honolulu on Saturday evening to lend moral support to the U.S. Navy-led salvage crew that is trying to lift the Ehime Maru, the officials said.

Members of the Maritime Self-Defense Force are also involved in the operation.

The salvage crew is trying to rig and transport the Ehime Maru from its current location at a depth of about 600 meters to a higher shoal, where divers will attempt to retrieve the remains and personal effects of nine missing crew members.

The 499-ton vessel from Uwajima Fisheries High School in Ehime Prefecture was struck and sunk Feb. 9 by the USS Greeneville, which was demonstrating an emergency surfacing maneuver for a group of civilians.

Four students from the high school and five others are believed entombed in the boat. Thirty-five people were aboard the Ehime Maru when the incident occurred.

Tanaka will probably leave Honolulu on Sunday and return to Japan the following day, the officials said.