If you watched the movie about Hachiko, we guaranty you did not remain indifferent. The true story of this example of true loyalty and grief of a dog for its owner brought tears to the eyes of even the hardest of hearts.
Hachiko was a Japanese Akita dog, born in November 1923. on a farm in Akita Prefecture. He became known to the general public in 1932, after a report by a Japanese journalist. The report talked about a dog that has been waiting for the late owner at the train station for years to return from work.
This selfless and devoted love of the dog for man began in 1924, when the Japanese professor Hidesaburo Uenou received Hachiko. Ueno was a professor at the University of Tokyo, and he went to work every day from the Shibuya train station, near his house. Hachiko came to the station every day in the afternoon to wait for Uen to come off the train so they can walk home together.
A year after Hachiko came to the family, Professor Ueno suffered a heart attack at work, during a lecture, as a result of which he passed away. Hachiko came to Shibuya station at the same time every following day, to wait for his owner.
Loyalty and love that can break your heart!
Hachiko went to the station for almost ten years and waited for Ueno to get off the train and go home. Everyone knew him and during his lifetime, and in April 1934, a monument to him was erected at the station. Hachiko died in early 1935. and was found in front of the station. His stuffed remains are still in the Japanese National Science Museum in Ueno, Tokyo.
The monument at the Shibuya station was destroyed during the Second World War, but was restored in 1948. Every year, a ceremony in memory of this faithful dog with a big heart is organized at this station. A museum dedicated to Hachiko was opened in Odate, on the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Association for the Preservation of Akita Dogs.
The story of Hachiko was screened twice, and the first was the Japanese film Hachiko’s story from 1987. In 2009, the American adapted version of Hachiko was released.