Titanic Survivors: Masabumi Hosono
Wikimedia CommonsMasabumi Hosono, Titanic survivor.
The only Japanese person aboard the Titanic, Masabumi Hosono ultimately endured the scorn of his countrymen for taking a spot on a lifeboat and not going down with the ship.
At the time of the collision, Honoso was asleep in his cabin. He woke to a frantic knock on the door and the sound of footsteps in the hallway.
He would later write that the scene outside his cabin was terrifying and chaotic: passengers scurried back and forth as white flashes exploded above him — the crew was setting off emergency flares.
When he arrived at the lifeboats, he was turned away: he was a foreigner, the officer said, and would have to wait on the lower deck.
But when the man turned his back, Hosono saw his chance. A lifeboat called out that it had room for another two passengers, and after watching another man hop in, he wrestled with himself. He felt he should go down with the ship — but he wanted more than anything to see his wife and children again.
He joined the man in the lifeboat, the screams of the drowning echoing in his ears as the boat pulled away.
After making it back to land, Hosono reportedly lost his government job, suffered ridicule in the press, and served as a source of shame for his family even after his death in 1997.
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