The only Japanese man who survived the Titanic

The only Japanese man who survived the Titanic was hated and cursed for life
The Japanese man’s name was Masafumi Hosono. In 1912, out of a professional need, Masafumi Hosono decided to travel to the United States on the Titanic, and this one-time choice changed his life.

On April 14, 1912, the Titanic collided with an iceberg on its way from England to New York, the United States. This caused a split from the starboard side to the middle of the hull, and broke the middle of the hull at dawn on the 15th and sank in the Atlantic Ocean.

The sinking of the Titanic shocked the world, killing a total of 1517 people and surviving only 707. Masafumi Hosono was the only surviving Japanese man. With almost all of the survivors being women and children, he was a particularly noticeable presence.

Since the lifeboat on board could carry only half of the passengers at the time of the accident, the captain had no choice but to order women and children to get on the boat first. So how did the man, Hosono Masafumi, get on the lifeboat?

At first, the Japanese media reported extensively, and I thought it was very fortunate that Masafumi Hosono survived the accident.

However, shortly afterwards, the British media publicly accused him of being a coward. This was because a survivor who was on a lifeboat at the time accused the media of his deception. The accuser claimed that Masafumi Hosono dressed as a woman and violently knocked others down and boarded the lifeboat, robbing women and children of their chances of survival.

Masafumi Hosono was then despised by his Japanese compatriots who did not know the truth. He was condemned and insulted, becoming a disgrace to a Japanese man.

Masafumi Hosono was originally a highly anticipated man-made man who worked for the Japanese Railway Administration. However, after the incident spread, the Japanese government firmly fired him, not reluctant to lose the man-made talent it had nurtured for a long time.

Faced with all this, Masafumi Hosono chose to remain silent. He did not excuse himself, taking it all silently, and remained the same until his death from the disease in 1939.

Originally, the story was supposed to end there. However, in 1941, Masafumi Hosono’s family cleared him and demanded the government restore his honor.

While Masafumi Hosono’s family was organizing his belongings, they found a notebook that detailed his experiences on the travel ship. Through his records, people learned that events are different from talking outside.

According to his recollection: When he came out in his pajamas after being awakened that night, a sailor threw a life jacket and hurried off. He was pushed to the deck by a crowd of people, and the ship was covered in flames and lifeboats were floating on the water. He was waiting anxiously and looking for hope of survival when he suddenly heard someone shout, “There are two seats left on this boat!” So, he jumped on the boat in a hurry. Not only was he short in his pajamas, but the crew member accepted him without identifying his male identity because the scene was extremely tense and chaotic.

But virtually all of the survivors were women and children, because most men voluntarily ceded the opportunity to escape to women.

Astor, who was the world’s richest man at the time, also voluntarily conceded a chance to escape. The gentlemanly and representative figure of these men stands in sharp contrast to Masafumi Hosono.