"Liverpool" discharged a warning shot across "Asama Maru"s bows to compel the liner to halt, afterwards deploying 12 men to conduct the search. Four days after the incident, the NYK Line dismissed Captain Watanabe, under the pretense of retirement, accusing him of "misconduct". The Government of Japan condemned the operation as an abuse of belligerent rights and formally protested the action, which further escalated tensions between the two countries. The Japanese and British governments sought to defuse the dispute through negotiation, and on 5 February, the two countries accepted a proposal which entailed the release of nine Germans in exchange for Japan pledging to deny military-age German citizens access to their vessels. In Australia's official history of the war, it was said that the most senior of the nine Germans, Captain Groth, remarked during his passage to Japan aboard the armed merchant cruiser that the operation had been "an excellent piece of work, and an action which would deter the remainder of the German crews still in the United States, approximately 1000 men, from making the passage".