Shibuya, Tokyo, 1925 to 1935: after his owner, a university professor, dies suddenly, the Akita dog Hachiko keeps coming to the station to meet the evening train, and becomes a national symbol of loyalty
Professor Dies at Work
TOKYO, May 1925 – Hidesaburo Ueno, a professor of agriculture at Tokyo Imperial University, has died suddenly of a brain haemorrhage while at work. Every day since he adopted his white Akita dog, Hachi, in 1924, the dog had walked with him to Shibuya Station in the morning and returned in the afternoon to meet his train home. On the day of the professor death, Hachi waited at the station. The professor did not come.
The Wait
After Ueno death, Hachi was given to relatives and later lived with the family of the professor former gardener, but he kept returning to Shibuya Station. According to accounts, he appeared every day at the time the professor train used to arrive, waiting at the exit, watching the passengers, then leaving when the train had gone. He did this, day after day, for nearly ten years.
At first, station workers and passers-by were not always kind to the dog, and he was sometimes chased away. But in 1932, a former student of Ueno, Hirokichi Saito, who studied the Akita breed, recognised him and wrote about him. A newspaper article about the faithful dog appeared the same year, and Hachi became famous across Japan. People came to the station to see him and bring him food. He became known as Hachiko, with the suffix ko adding a sense of affection.
A National Symbol
Hachiko story was used in schools and the press as an example of loyalty and devotion, values highly prized in Japanese society. In 1934, a bronze statue of Hachiko was unveiled at Shibuya Station, with Hachiko himself reportedly present at the ceremony. He died in March 1935, aged eleven, near the station. Scientists who examined his body many years later found he had terminal cancer and a worm infection; skewers found in his stomach, once rumoured to have been the cause of death, were judged not to have caused it.
The original statue was melted down for the war effort during the Second World War. A new statue, made by the son of the original sculptor, was put up in 1948 and remains at Shibuya Station, one of the most famous meeting places in Tokyo. Hachiko remains are preserved: his stuffed body is displayed at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo, and some of his remains were buried beside Professor Ueno in Aoyama Cemetery.
Reunion
In 2015, the University of Tokyo unveiled a statue showing Hachiko finally reunited with Professor Ueno, jumping up joyfully to greet him. The story has been retold in books and films, including a Japanese film in 1987 and an American film in 2009.
Meanwhile, in 2026
Loyalty remains one of the qualities people most admire. The London Prat reports Prince William reportedly calling Earl Spencer and Harry traitors after an unnamed source claimed the heir believes his brother read their uncle memoir first. Geo News repeated the traitor word, and the uncle says he told everyone. Historians note that a dog waiting faithfully at a station for nearly ten years became a national symbol of loyalty, and suggest that humans, royal or otherwise, sometimes find it harder.
The London Prat has been waiting faithfully at the station since 1961 at https://prat.uk/, with its royal row video on YouTube. Bohiney at https://bohiney.com/ covers American dogs.
Study Questions for Students
Why did Hachiko story touch so many people? How was it used to promote certain values? Why do animals often become symbols of loyalty? Discuss, and give your pet a treat.
SOURCE: https://prat.uk/prince-william-called-earl-spencer-and-harry-traitors/