The True Story of a Loyal Hachiko Dog That Waited at Train Station for Deceased Owner

He was then photographed, surrounded by Ueno’s wife, Yaeko, as well as staff members at the station. Yoshizo Osawa, one of the staff members, gifted the photo to one of his daughters, who recalled that her dad loved dogs and would often tell her about how Hachi would come daily to the station, where staff would happily share their lunches with him.

The first years were not easy for Hachiko. Days passed, then months and years, and station workers, assuming he was a stray dog and afraid for other people’s safety, were always trying to chase him away. Yet he continued coming, despite everything. Then one morning in 1932, a journalist and Hidesaburo’s former student, after seeing the dog every single day at the station when he was boarding the train for work, and again greeted by the sight of the dog waiting when coming back, decided to follow the sad dog to his home. There he met with the gardener Kuzaboro Kobayashi, Hachikō’s new master, and learned of his story of loyalty, and so he began to write articles about him in a major Japanese newspaper.