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This has to be the classic bit about sea travel--dying at sea. Shipwrecks, war, storms are all classic literary images.A couple of the more highly publicized events involving Hakone Maru include dying while traveling and being buried at sea, and committing suicide.
Charles Eliot.
Charles Eliot.
On March 17, 1931, Charles Elliot ("a learned and accomplished Orientalist" and British Ambassador to Tokyo from 1921 to 1926) died on the Hakone Maru while on his homeward journey from Japan to England. Thanks to an amazing collection of Australian newspapers that are on the web, I also found a detailed description of this from The Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW) of May 23, 1931:(which I was able to help clean up the otherwise automatic transcription from the scanned PDF):
Sir Charles Eliot, British Ambassador in Japan from 1918 to 1926, who died on board the Hakone Maru on March 17, was buried at sea later that day about half-way between Penang and Colombo (as reported in the "Times"). The commander, Captain Y. Okuno, who had met Sir Charles Eliot on previous voyages and knew something of his intense interest in Buddhism, decided that as there was no Christian priest on board the burial service should be according to the rites usually observed at funerals of Japanese passengers. A platform was erected on the lower deck, and an artificial wreath from the captain, officers, and crew of the Hakone Maru placed upon it. On a table were two bowls, one containing burning incense and the other incense powder. The only words spoken during the ceremony were an invitation in Japanese from the purser to every person who had come into contact with Sir Charles Eliot to pay respect to the dead. The first to be invited was Sir Charles Eliot's personal servant, a Japanese, who carried a small bowl of sacred water which he placed beside the incense. He was followed by the captain, and then came each officer and member of the crow who had had direct dealings with Sir Charles Eliot, down to the cabin steward and the table steward. Each walked up to the small table, bowed, took three pinches of thc incense powder from the unlit bowl and crinkled them on that already burning. The bier was then slowly raised and the body slid into the sea. With this simple but impressive ceremony a great scholar and noted diplomatist was buried by a people whom he knew and loved.
From Passenger Arrival List, London
Obituary by Reginald F. Johnston: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society / Volume 63 / Issue 3 / July 1931
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011, pp. 728-731
Print publication: July 1931
...
Eliot was a sick man when the Hahone Maru passed through Hong-Kong. He was unable to go ashore, but he was visited on board by several of those who had been his friends and colleagues during his period of office at the University. A fitting tribute of respect was paid to his memory there when the news of his death reached the Colony a few days later. The members of the University Court and Senate and the resident graduates and undergraduates stood in silence in the Great Hall while Sir William Hornell moved a resolution deploring the loss of the distinguished scholar, diplomat, and administrator who had been the first of his predecessors in the office of Vice-Chancellor.
It happened that there was no Christian priest on board the Hahone Maru when Eliot died, and the Japanese captain, who, as the Singapore correspondent of The Times observed, knew something of Eliot's " intense interest in Buddhism ", decided that his body should be committed to the sea in accordance with the Buddhist rites ordinarily observed on such occasions. " With this simple and impressive ceremony a great scholar and noted diplomatist was buried by a people whom he knew and loved." REGINALD F. JOHNSTON. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00111013
Satoh
Satoh
Davis Cup Team
Davis Cup Team
Check Trove for some other pre-disaster stories
Japan's Hopes of Victory Satoh on the Australians
TOKIO, March 23.
The Japanese Davis Cup team-Satoh, Fujikura, Yamagishi, and NIshimura-left for Europe by the Hakone Maru from Kobe to-daj*. Satoh said:-"We are in heaven's hands, but we are determined to do our utmost for victory. Our strongest opponents will be Crawford, Perry, and McGrath. I have confidence in NIshimura, Yamagishi, and Fujikura, whose youthful vigour and physique are not inferior to those of the other champions. If also they show the fighting spirit which they displayed in last year's Japanese championship we may hope to achieve a long-cherished objective, and win the Davis Cup."
From the San Bernardino Sun March 23:
TOKYO, March 22. The Japanese Davis cup team composed of Jiro Sato, Hideo Nishimura, Jiro Yamagifhi and Jiro Fujimkura, sailed for Europe today aboard the liner Hakone Maru. The players will arrive in Kobe tomorrow where they will spend the day before proceeding on their journey via Shanghai. Mr. Ryuki Miki who is already in London will act as manager for the team while it is on its European tour. Unless plans are changed the team will not return by way of the United States as has been the custom in other years.
The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser
Date: 24 May 1934
TRAGEDY OF SATOH. THE THREE-FOLD REASON. WASTED TO STAY IS JAPAN.
It is believed that the reason for the tragedy is threefold (wires the London “Evening News” Tokio correspondent).
Satoh was in ill-health, was suffering from fits of depression, and was grief-stricken at the idea of being parted so long from the girl he loved, Miss SanaeOkada, of Tokio, who is also a tennis player.
He wanted to stay in Japan and marry Miss Okada, but the Japanese Lawn Tennis Association persuaded him to go to Europe to uphold his country’s tennis honour in the Davis Cup competition this summer.
He yielded to the pressure put upon him, and sailed from Kobe in the Hakone Maru with the other members of the team. During the voyage from Kobe to Singapore his depression grew and grow. He sent a wireless message to the Japanese Lawn Tennis Association asking to be allowed to disembark at Singapore and return home. They replied refusing his request.
That refusal was apparently the last straw. He mooned about at Singapore, and 12 hours after the ship had left the tragedy happened.
Miss Okada is overcome with grief at her loss and inconsolable.
Source: Ballymena Weekly Telegraph - Saturday 14 April 1934, p. 7.From The Age (Melbourne) 4/11/1934, p. 11:
SATOH'S LAST LETTER.
Written to His Fiancee.
TOKIO. 10th April.
The captain of the steamer Hakone Maru has sent to Miss Sanac Okada, fiancee of Jiro Satoh, his last message, dated 3rd April. He wrote:
"Dearest Sanae, ah fate ! Forgive me. Such a small cause. Some thing in head hinders concentration After leaving Japan my stomach trouble became worse. To-morrow we reach Singapore. Now while writing that hindrance confuses me. Many thoughts are whirling in my head. I fear they will spoil my playing. Forgive me. I must die. It is cowardly to die, but It is unavoidable. Naturally it breaks our engagement. Whuc a wrong thing to do, injuring your family name. Give my kimono to my brother and keep the other things as keepsakes if you wish. These are my last words. Jiro."
Other Deaths
Other Deaths
Malaya Tribune.
Date: 22 June 1926
Not the first Japanese tennis star to take the Hakone Maru.
Ichiga Kumagae was on first Asian voyage.
Chinese Strangled In Hakone Maru
Chinese Strangled In Hakone Maru
The North-China Herald, May 1, 1940, p. 175
Shanghai, Apr. 24.
With his clothes ‘badly torn and his head covered with blood, Yang Tsang-Jang, 29-year old Chinese money changer, was found strangled to death in cabin 114 in the first class section of the ss. Hakone Maru, N.Y.K. liner which was moored in the N.Y.K. Wayside Wharf about 11 p.m. on April 22. The motive for his murder is apparently a mystery as the dead man had on his person when he was found, a quantity of money in yen, Chinese national currency and Hongkong dollars. Japanese Consular Police are investigating the murder.
The dead man was found about 11 p.m. on April 22 by the assistant purser in the Hakone Maru. The assistant purser was inspecting the ship's cabins and when he came to 114 he found the door locked. He looked in through a port hole and saw the dead Chinese lying on the floor of the cabin and went to call the purser. ‘The purser opened the door to the cabin with a duplicate key and then notified the Japanese Consular Police, In addition to the torn clothes of the dead man and the bloody appearance of the body, the cabin was disarranged, giving mute evidence that a terrific struggle had taken place within,
‘The Shanghai Municipal Police were notified of the murder at 3 Am. yesterday but had very few details as the investigation is entirely, in the bands of the Japanese Consular police. The Hakone Maru docked at, 12 noon on April 22 and sailed for Kobe, Japan, at 11 am. yesterday.
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