The only Japanese passenger on the Titanic survived. For this, he lived the rest of his life in shame. Talk about honor.

 

Masabumi Hosono was the only Japanese person aboard the Titanic. He was a civil servant working for the Japanese Ministry of Transport. He was on a mission to Russia and London. It was there that he boarded the Titanic as a second -class passenger. A steward woke him up after the Titanic had already hit the iceberg. He made his way to the deck, where he saw in dismay how lifeboats were running out.

 

Then, a stroke of good fortune: One of the last boats had room for two more people. He describes the horror of what he saw from the lifeboat that was only 200 feet from the Titanic as it went under: there were "frightful shrills and cries of those drowning in the water." When he arrived in the US, he made his way to San Francisco, where he was dubbed the "Lucky Japanese Boy."

 

At first magazines in Tokyo were running his story and taking his pictures. Soon, however, he found himself the target of public condemnation. The man in charge of the lifeboat described him as a "stowaway that must have disguised himself as a woman to make it aboard."

 

The man temporarily lost his job and was condemned as a coward by the press. School textbooks described him as dishonorable and immoral. This is because people in Japan thought he was betraying the Samurai spirit of self-sacrifice. People thought he should have gone down with the ship. `The man lived the rest of his life in shame, and his bad image haunted his family for years to come.