To this day, the sinking of the Titanic remains the most curious event in the history of maritime disasters. But what continues to get people talking even more are the colorful stories of the survivors, even sad ones like Masabumi Hosono’s.
Before the Titanic set sail, Mr. Hosono was working in Russia as a deputy commissioner of the Railway Board of the Japanese Ministry of Transport, the Japan Times said.
On the repatriation route, Hosono, then 42 years old, chose to board the Titanic in Southampton, England, instead of making the trip across Russia. He was the only Japanese passenger on the train and had a second class ticket.
On the cold evening of April 14, 1912, the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic suffered a fatal accident when the ship hit an iceberg.
Hosono’s diary of the disaster was made public by his family in 1997. According to the story, he was awakened by a knock on his cabin door. However, because Hosono was a foreigner, he was taken to the lower deck, away from the lifeboats.
While waiting for his fateful moment, a chance to survive appeared to him when an officer preparing the lifeboat said there were 2 empty seats left. A man took the opportunity and stepped forward. Hosono hesitated at first.
“I myself sink into despair at the thought of not being able to see my beloved wife and children again because I have no other solution but to suffer the same fate as the Titanic,” Hosono wrote in a statement. letter sent to his wife in the days after the disaster.
“But the fact that the first man jumped in inspired me to take this last chance.”
Titanic survivors after being rescued.
So he decided to take the opportunity, jump into the lifeboat and save himself. He was among 700 people who survived the disaster, while another 1,500 people died.
Unlike Violet Jessop, a stewardess who survived the sinking, or the “unsinkable” Molly Brown, Hosono received a cold welcome from her homeland.
He faced harsh criticism from the Japanese press, which at the time condemned the surviving men as cowards and praised the courage of those who died.
According to Metropolis Japan, he felt ashamed for not following the principle of “women and children have priority” and avoiding an honorable death by going down with the ship. As a result, Hosono suffered what the Japanese call mura hachibu, or social ostracism.
He lost his job in 1914, according to AP. Although he was hired part-time, discrimination followed him for the rest of his life.
Hosono lived as a recluse in silent shame until his death of natural causes in 1939. Even after his death, mentioning the Titanic disaster remained taboo in his family.
According to The Brantford Expositor, the wave of derision surrounding Hosono’s survival lasted into the 1990s, increased by negative publicity from the Japanese media after the release of James Cameron’s Titanic.
In 1997, the AP reported that he may have been mistaken for an Asian man on another lifeboat. In fact, Hosono actually helped row the lifeboat away from the sinking ship, saving other passengers.
Matt Taylor, an American researcher and Titanic scholar who investigated Hosono’s writings, told the AP that the discovery “effectively restored his honor and reputation.” Indeed, the revelations have garnered much public sympathy for Hosono.
Written aboard the Titanic ‘s rescue ship , Hosono’s account is to this day considered one of the most detailed records of what happened on the ill-fated ship amid the panic.
According to Vietnamese Women
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