As a civil servant working for the Japanese Ministry of Transport,

He researched Imperial Russia’s railway system in 1910.

His journey back to Japan then took him to Britain.

After staying in London for a time, he went to South Hampton, where he boarded the RMS Titanic on April 10th 1912 in second class.

During the disaster, as the ship was sinking after hitting an iceberg, passengers began the few lifeboats to evacuate.

Hosono was asleep when the crash happened, but awoke when a Stewardess knocked on his cabin and told him a life jacket.

When he tried to go to the top deck where the lifeboats were, he was blocked by a crewman, who assumed he was a third class passenger.

But eventually he slipped passed, and reached the top deck.

“All the while flares were signalling emergency were being shot into the air ceaselessly, and hideous blue flashes and noises were simply terrifying.

He found a lifeboat, when an officer shouted “Room for two more!”

And survived the Titanic disaster.

When he returned to Japan, Hosono instead of being cheered was disgraced by U.S. and Japanese press, because he did not adhere to the Women and children first rule.

Some newspapers even wrote stories about Hosono disguising himself as a woman to get on a lifeboat, and said that he should commit suicide.

He would be ostracized for the rest of his life in Japan in what is known as ‘Mura Hachibu’, something that is still found today, or a co-worker who has made a grievous error, or shown a lack of loyalty is avoided by his or her peers.

Hosono died of natural causes on March 14th 1939, at 68 years old.

After his death, his granddaughter found his diary and published it.

In it, he said how he did not want to do anything disgraceful as a Japanese, which is seen as his redemption bringing Honor back to the Hosono family.