Diário de vida - Faithful Hachiko

Esse texto faz parte do livro didático adotado (Reading for adults 2) quando estava no 3º colegial e fala justamente do cão mais famoso do Japão, o Hachiko, um exemplo de fidelidade ao seu dono, um professor, que todos os dias ia dar aulas na faculdade e tomava o trem na estação de Shibuya. Um dia o professor não voltou (tinha tido um ataque cardíaco e acabou falecendo), mas Hachiko continuou a ir à estação todos os dias sempre no horário em que o seu dono chegaria. Quando o cão faleceu foi sepultado no mesmo cemitério ao lado do professor. E na frente da estação de Shibuya fizeram uma estátua em homenagem ao Hachiko e ela acabou virando um ponto de referência em Tóquio para marcar encontros.

Hachiko

Estátua de Hachiko na frente da estação de Shibuya em Tóquio

 "Where shall we meet?" - it is a question which may demand a good deal of thought in one of our great overgrown cities.

Perhaps the best-known meeting place in the immense city of Tokyo is the statue of the dog in front of Shibuya station. Tokyo has many centres, and a lot of its people are familiar only with those which are near to their homes. But everyone seems to know the statue of the dog.

The dog's name is Hachiko. This is the story.

Hachiko was born in 1923 in Akita in the north of Japan. Akita dogs are famous in Japan. They are fairly large, golden-brown in colour, and they have pointed ears and sharp, clever faces. They are well-known for their loyalty.

It was fortunate for Hachiko when a professor of Tokyo University found him. The professor took him to his house not far from Shibuya station, and there be showed himself a good and kind master. The dog loved him.

Of course Hachiko could not follow his master to the university. But he left the house every morning with the professor and walked along with him as far as Shibuya station. He watched him buy his ticket and disappear towards the train. Then Hachiko used to sit down in  the small square and wait for his master' return from work in the late afternon.

This happened every day. The professor and his dog became a familiar sight, and the story of the faithful animal spread around Shibuya.

Then, one afternoon in 1925, there was tragedy. For some time the professor's health had not been good, and he had a sudden heart-attack at the university. He died before he could be taken home.

Back in Shibuya, the dog waited in front of the station.

Soon the news of the professor's sudden death reached Shibuya. People immediately thought of the poor dog which had followed him every day. Several of tghem had the same thought. They went to the little square and spoke to the dog - as if he could understand them. "Go home, good dog. The professor won't be coming. Go home".

The next morning Hachiko was seen in front of the station, waiting for his master. He waited all day in vain. The following day he was there again. And the nex day. And the nex. The days became weeks, the weeks months, the months years. Still the dog arrived in front of the station every morning. still he waited the whole day long, searching among the strange faces for the one that he loved. In rain and sunshine, wind and snow, the faithful animal was there. He was a young dog, ten months old, when his master died; he grew old; but the daily waiting continued.

The dog's faithfulness had an extraordinaty effect on the Japanese of Shibuya. He became a public hero - the best-loved figure in the area. Travellers returning to Shibuya after a long absence always asked about him.

"Will Hachiko be there?" they asked, as the train drew in to Shibuya station.

In 1934 the good people of Shibuya asked Teru Ando, a famous Japanese sculptor, to make a statue of their friend Hachiko. He did it gladly, and the statue was set up in front of the station.

For another year Hachiko came every morning to wait, in the shadow of his own statue, for his master. In 1935 the faifhful dog died, but not before Ando's work had become famous all over Tokyo.

During the war the statue was melted down, and Ando, the fine sculptor, was killed. But the people of Shibuya remembered Hachiko. They formed a Society for the Replacement of Hachiko's Statue, and this society asked Teru Ando's son, Takeshi Ando, to make a new statue.

Today the fine statue of Hachiko stands in the middle of the busy and friendly square in front of Shibuya station. There are fountains round it, and busy newspaper stands, and usually laughing people, and you will always see somebody telling the story of Hachiko to a child or a grown-up friend. As you look at the same and read the words below it, you feel that you know a little more about Akita dogs, loyalty, and the people of Japan.