The real story behind the movie “Always by Your Side”

Whether out of fear of the unknown or some previous bad experience, not all people are willing to open their hearts easily. The same can happen when adopting a pet. Doubts about incorporating a four-legged being as a family member are common. However, those who dare to do this will most likely meet a sincere friendship, capable of showing that love, when true, is infinite.

O awesome.club believe the value of loyalty, so it wants to tell the story of Hachiko, a dog who demonstrated that time is not a determining factor when it comes to love and served as the inspiration for the film Always by your side.

Hidesaburō Ueno was born in Japan on January 19, 1872. He was a professor at a university and in charge of training specialists in the field of agronomy, with great contributions in the implementation of teaching techniques that later helped his region. We could certainly continue talking about his achievements, which were not few, but one of the factors that made him known worldwide over the years was not his intellect, but the friendship he built with his pet.

Before meeting Hachiko, the professor had a dog that he loved very much and that when she died left him very sad, to the point of not wanting to have another pet that would take her place. However, her daughter’s insistence on having a dog again was such that she ended up accepting an Akita.

Hachiko, a brown and golden dog, was born on November 10, 1923, in Japan. In 1924, Professor Ueno adopted him, but the first meeting between the protagonists of this story was not moving at all. The professor didn’t even bother to pick up his new pet, asking his employees to do so since he was sleeping.

When the little dog arrived at the train station after a two-day trip to the area where his foster family lived, he was so exhausted that for a moment the professor’s employees feared he had died. However, when they took him home, Ueno knew what to do: he gave him some milk and, little by little, the tired animal woke up until he opened his eyes. When the dog was more excited, the teacher took him in his arms and after observing him, decided to name him “Hachi”, which means “eight” in their language, because of the similarity to the Japanese spelling of the number. with the akita’s front legs, which looked slightly crooked.

The days passed and the teacher, although he was very kind, only admitted to feeling sympathy for the dog, despite his attempts to get his attention. When his daughter got married and left, Mr. Ueno even considered giving the animal up for adoption. It was when considering this alternative that he realized that he couldn’t do it, because Hachiko, who felt total adoration for his owner since he met him, with all his displays of effusive affection, managed to move him and made him see that was already part of the family. So there was no reason to walk away from her.

Little by little, the two established routines, and that was how Hachiko, in order to be away from her owner as little as possible, began to accompany him to Shibuya Station, where the teacher took the train to work. There, the animal said goodbye to Mr. Ueno and, at the end of the day, returned to wait for him and accompany him back home. It might seem like a simple action, but being a spontaneous and affectionate gesture of the dog to its owner, it caught the attention of all the employees and sellers, who saw them daily and were amazed at the friendship between the two.

On May 21, 1925, Professor Ueno went to work, as he did every day, and Hachiko, as usual, accompanied him to the station. However, unlike the previous times, his owner did not return, as he died of a brain hemorrhage while teaching at the university, without being able to say goodbye to either his family or Hachiko, who stayed all night at the station waiting for him, without even go out to eat. Far from being discouraged by not seeing him, during that week the dog came back to wait for him, and even when another family wanted to adopt him and take him to another region, he looked for a way to return to the place where he used to wait for the owner.

Making Shibuya Station practically his home, the dog returned every day to wait for his human. The weeks became months, the months, years, and the loyal friend insisted on waiting for the teacher. The people who worked there and knew Ueno, fed Hachiko, and his devotion to his owner became so well known that they started calling him “the faithful dog”. Over time, its popularity began to grow, drawing the attention of people who did not even go to the station, to the point that, in 1934, they built a monument in honor of the animal, which was present at the inauguration.

Hachiko and the professor lived together for just over a year, but the bond was so strong that, when they were separated by death, the dog remained willing to wait for its owner for about ten years, a much longer time than they lived together. together. This is how, on March 9, 1935, Hachiko was finally able to meet Mr. Ueno again, when, a victim of terminal cancer, he took his last breath in front of Shibuya station.

Even with his death, the story did not fall into oblivion. In honor of his loyalty, a statue named after him was built next to Hidesaburō Ueno’s grave, and every March 8 is a day to pay respects to the dog, in the square in front of Shibuya Station. His story showed not only the enormous affection that an animal can feel towards its owner, but also that neither time nor distance are able to make us forget a loved one. It was the affection and loyalty that kept Ueno and Hachiko together even after death and made them unforgettable, touching people’s hearts, even almost a hundred years after everything happened.

Have you already watched the movie? Did you know the story of these inseparable friends? Were you as moved as we are? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to share photos and stories of your pets.