Everyone likes to think that their dog is the loyalist canine companion out there. Dogs greet us with wagging tails and sloppy tongues every time we come home, regardless of how long we were actually gone. They’ve been by our sides time and time again when we needed them most, offering us unconditional love and affection.
But do our dogs remain loyal to us even after death?
Well, one dog living in Shibuya, Tokyo during the 1920s and 30s has shown people around the world that a dog’s love for us can last a lifetime.
Hachiko was a Japanese Akita born in 1923 and taken in by Hidesaburo Ueno, a professor of agriculture at Tokyo University. Every single day, Professor Ueno would take the train from Shibuya Station into work, and every day at the same time, Hachiko would sit in wait near the station for his master to return so that they could walk home together.
However, Professor Ueno suffered from a brain hemorrhage at work one day in 1925 and passed away. Hachiko would sit at the station that day and wait for a master who would never return.
Hachiko would continue to wait, not just for that one day, or even for the following week, but every single day for nearly ten years. Not understanding that his master had passed away and wasn’t coming back, Hachiko made the walk to Shibuya Station at the same time each day in hopes of getting the chance to walk home with him again.
It wasn’t exactly easy for Hachi to wait either, as he was often hurt and harassed by people around the station who viewed him as a burden, not knowing why he was there.
However, when Hachiko’s story made it into the Japanese newspaper, Asahi Shimbun, he gained national attention. People would make trips from miles away just to see Hachiko waiting and would offer him treats and praise. He quickly became a phenomenon in the country for his portrayal of loyalty—the government even erecting a statue at Shibuya Station in his honor.
But regardless of the nationwide attention he was getting in statues, headlines, and treats, there wasn’t anything Hachiko wanted more than to see his master once again.
Hachiko’s long wait for his master would finally come to an end on March 8th, 1935, when he passed away at the age of 11 from terminal cancer on a street in Shibuya. Following his death, his remains were cremated, and he was put to rest right beside Professor Ueno’s grave at Aoyama Cemetary in Minato, Tokyo.
However, his fur was saved so that he could be stuffed and put on display at the National Science Museum of Japan in Tokyo.
Today, Hachiko is still revered in Japan, as well as the entire world, for his undying loyalty to his master. Many children’s books have been written about Hachiko, and there have been several film adaptations as well—including a 2009 British-American film titled, Hachi: A Dog’s Tale, starring Richard Gere. So if you’re not a fan of movies where the dog ends up sad or dying, definitely avoid checking out that one. But if you do, bring lots of tissues.
The loyalty portrayed by Hachiko has also had a major impact on Japanese culture. While the original statue of Hachiko was destroyed during the Second World War, a new one was created where the original stood at Shibuya Station in 1948. It’s an incredibly popular tourist attraction and meeting spot for people in Tokyo today.
And even the Shibuya statue aside, dozens of other statues created in Hachiko’s honor have popped up all around the world—including one of Hachiko finally being reunited with his master outside of Tokyo University.
The Akita has even been named as the national dog of Japan, and the breed has been under protection by the country since the large-scale extermination of them during World War II. In fact, the Akita ended up being so well-loved by US forces during the war, that many soldiers took them back to America to breed for themselves—thus resulting in the two different types of Akita we see today (the Japanese Akita and the American Akita).
Hachiko has become such a well-celebrated dog that International Akita Day, a day to celebrate the Akita breed, takes place every year on March 8th—the day of Hachiko’s death. People will come from all over with their dogs on that day in order to pay their respects at Hachiko’s statue in Shibuya. Typically, a banner is even placed around the statue in celebration of the holiday.
Many Akita owners like to show love for their dogs online by sharing pictures of them on Instagram or Facebook for the holiday.
Hachiko’s story and his impact on the entire world is the living proof of just how much our dogs love us. Sometimes when it feels as though we have nobody on our side, it’s comforting to know that our dogs will remain loyal to us through thick and thin. Regardless of whether our dogs wait for us to return for two hours, or for nearly a decade, their love and loyalty are undeniable. We definitely don’t deserve them.
