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was a Japanese civil servant. He was the only Japanese passenger on the RMS ''Titanic''s disastrous maiden voyage. He survived the ship's sinking on 15 April 1912 but found himself condemned and ostracised by the Japanese public, press and government for his decision to save himself rather than go down with the ship. ==Voyage== The 41-year-old Hosono was a civil servant working for the Japanese Ministry of Transport. He had been sent in 1910 to imperial Russia to research the Russian state railway system. His journey back to Japan took him first to London, where he stayed for a short time, then to Southampton where he boarded ''Titanic'' on 10 April 1912 as a second class passenger. During the night of 14/15 April he was awakened by a steward. However, he was blocked from going to ''Titanic''s boat deck, from which lifeboats were already being launched, as a crewman assumed that he was a third class passenger. He eventually made his way past the obstruction and made his way to the boat deck, where he saw with alarm that emergency flares were being fired: "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." Hosono saw four lifeboats being launched and contemplated the prospect of an imminent death. He 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''". As the number of lifeboats remaining diminished rapidly, "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." As he watched lifeboat 10 being loaded, an officer shouted, "Room for two more", and a man jumped aboard. Hosono saw this and, as he later put it, "the example of the first man making a jump led me to take this last chance." He made it aboard safely and later commented: "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." From his vantage point in the lifeboat, only away from the sinking ship, he heard the cries of those still aboard and what he described as "extraordinary sounds", seemingly four distinct explosions, when the ship broke up. He described what he heard and saw as ''Titanic'' went under: At about 8 am on 15 April, the lifeboat's passengers were rescued by the RMS ''Carpathia''. Once aboard, Hosono slept in the smoking room but avoided it when he could as he was the target of jokes by the seamen, whom he called "a good-for-nothing band of seamen" for whom "anything I say falls on deaf ears." He pushed back, showing them "a bulldog tenacity" and eventually gained what he called "a bit of respect." He still had in his coat pockets a sheaf of stationery with ''Titanic''s letterhead on which he had started a letter to his wife written in English. He now used the paper to write an account of his experiences in Japanese during ''Carpathia''s voyage to New York. It is the only such document known to exist on ''Titanic'' stationery.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Masabumi Hosono」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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