Hachiko: A dog’s story

By: Anastasia Macovei, Rosa Lina Aragón

This story is based on real events. There are two films about this dog, one made in 1987, the other in 2009.

The films tell the same story. In the first one Hachiko is the main character and tells us his story from his birth to his death, and he imagines that after his death he has a spiritual meeting with his owner. The film met with great success.

The second is a remake of the first film. It was made in August 2009. Richard Rege stars in the film, which has the title ‘’Hachiko: A dog’s story”. The other actors include Joan Allen and Jason Alexander. The film was shot in Rhode Island.

Hachiko was a dog lost at the train station. One day the teacher Parker saw him and he decided that he wanted this dog and took it with him. He saw that nobody was looking for him and decided that the dog would live with him and his wife, but she did not like animals. Finally, the wife came to like the dog and agreed that he could stay with them.

The years passed and Hachiko became a very big, playful and faithful dog. Hachiko loved his owner and every day he came to the train station to meet Parker. The dog met him at the same time every day, without fail. When it was very cold or it was snowing the dog came all the same, always in the same place.

One day, the teacher Parker had a heart attack and died while he was teaching. But the dog waited for him, although he never appeared and he never understood that he had died. Hachiko came every day and hoped that one day his owner would appear, and although he never came back, Hachiko never lost his hope and he waited for him until his death. People knew him and said that he should not wait any more, because the teacher would never appear, but he waited at the same place every day.

Ten years went by and Hachiko never failed. He was old but never forgot his owner, he never forgot the love that the teacher gave him. One day Parker’s wife saw that he was waiting for him and rejoiced when she saw that he was there, waiting for 10 years. Hachiko waited until the last minute of his life; he never forgot him.

Hachiko in real life

In real life, Hachiko was born on November 10th 1923 and died on March 8th 1935. In Japanese his name is chūken Hachikō; hachi means eight and it refers to the order of his birth number in the litter and 'kō' means prince.

Videogames

The game Square Enix 'Subarashiki Kono Sekai' (“It's a Wonderful World”, or ‘'The World Ends With You’’, as it is called in America) shows the statue of Hachiko in the train station: Shibuya. If a player chooses the character of Samurai, he or she has a dog with the name of Hachi.
Books

There is also a 2004 children’s book entitled: Hachikō: The True Story of a Loyal Dog. The book was written by Pamela S. Turner and illustrated by Yan Nascimbene.

And a novel: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, written by David Wroblewski. The story tells us about the friendship of the protagonist and his family with dogs.