The Japanese civil servant who was ostracized for not going down with the Titanic
Masabumi Hosono (15 October 1870 Hokura, Niigata, Japan - 14 March 1939 Tokyo, Japan)
Early life
Hosono was born in the village of Hokura in 1870 and graduated from the Tokyo Higher Commercial School (Now Hitotsubashi University) and joined the Mitsubishi Joint Stock Company. The following year he become a cargo clerk at the Shidome Freight Terminal in Tokyo.
In 1906, having completed a Russian language course he became a manager in the accounting division of the Imperial Railroad Office. By 1908 he was the railroad director. In 1910 Hosono was working for the Ministry of Transport and was sent to Russia to learn from the Russian state railway system. He returned via London before boarding Titanic at Southampton as a second class passenger. As a government official he could have afforded to travel first class but non whites were not welcome so he travelled on a £13 second class ticket.
The collision
Hosono was asleep at the moment of the collision and was woken by a stewardess knocking on his door to rouse him. At first he thought it was a drill but as he attempted to head up to the higher decks it was assumed he was a third class passenger and so instructed to return to lower decks and await instructions.
He was able to evade the obstructions and make his way to the boat deck, and as he took in the scene he realised there would never be enough lifeboats to ferry all souls off the doomed liner. He described the scene in an account written on Titanic heading paper:
'All the while flares signalling emergency were being shot into the air ceaselessly, and hideous blue flashes and noises were simply terrifying. Somehow I could in no way dispel the feeling of utter dread and desolation,'
He watched the number of lifeboats diminish and began to contemplate the inevitability of his death:
'I tried to prepare myself for the last moment with no agitation, making up my mind not to leave anything disgraceful as a Japanese. But still I found myself looking for and waiting for any possible chance for survival.'
A chance for escape presented itself when an officer shouted "room for two more" before launching a lifeboat and a man jumped in. Hosono reports:
'I myself was deep in desolate thought that I would no more be able to see my beloved wife and children, since there was no alternative for me than to share the same destiny as the Titanic. But the example of the first man making a jump led me to take this last chance.'
In the lifeboat
'Fortunately the men in charge were taken up with something else and did not pay much attention. Besides, it was dark, and so they would not have seen who was a man and who a woman.'
Hosono was a mere 200 feet (61 metres) from the sinking ship, he described the "extraordinary sounds" of the cries of those still onboard and reported four distinct explosions when the ship broke up.
'After the ship sank there came back again frightful shrills and cries of those drowning in the water. Our lifeboat too was filled with sobbing, weeping children and women worried about the safety of their husbands and fathers. 'And I, too, was as much depressed and miserable as they were, not knowing what would become of myself in the long run.'
At around 8 am the following morning lifeboat 13 was rescued by the RMS Carpathia. It was while onboard the Carpathia that he used the Titanic headed paper in his pockets to write his account of the disaster, which he had originally used to start writing a letter to his wife. This testimony is the only known documented account to exist on Titanic stationary.
Fame to shame
Upon arrival in New York friends arranged his return to Japan where the newspapers called him "the lucky Japanese boy" and after providing a series of interviews he even achieved a degree of fame. All this was to change as another survivor, Archibald Gracie, in his book Titanic: A Survivor's Story, denounced him as a stowaway on lifeboat 10. Edward Buley, who was in charge of lifeboat 10 (having been instructed by First Officer William Murdoch to take command and find a seamen to accompany him) reported to the US Senate hearing that Hosono and the other man must have disguised themselves as women to sneak aboard although this was not reported in Japan.
The Gracie accusation caused a souring of Hosono's name and the reaction was swift and intense. Japanese society turned on him and condemned him as a coward. He lost his job and school text books described him as an example of how to be dishonourable. He was considered immoral by a professor of ethics. He received letters asking him to commit suicide for the shame he brought upon the country although he was reemployed by the ministry which he maintained until his death in 1939.
The treatment handed out to Hosono was no different to the scourging received by J. Bruce Ismay, the president of the White Star Line, who was labelled the "Coward of the Titanic" and became a relative recluse for the rest of his life.
Removing the stain
The Hosono shame hung over the family for decades. his hand written account was published at least twice soon after his death and then in 1980 during an unsuccessful bid to find the wreck of the Titanic. As the spotlight returned in the wake of the behemoth Cameron film, Masabumi's grandson, Haruomi Hosono, a leading member of the band Yellow Magic Orchestra expressed relief that honour had been restored after the letter was released to the media.
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