The Legend of Hachiko 

It was the daily habit of Hachiko, the Akita to accompany his master, Professor  Eisaburo Ueno of Tokyo University, to the train station to see him off. At 3:00  p.m., Hachiko would return to the station to greet his aster. On one particular  day, Hachiko met the train as usual but his master was not on the  train.  Professor Ueno had died while at the University that day. Hachiko, loyal dog,waited at the station until midnight.

Each day, Hachiko continued to come to the station to see the 3:00 train, hoping to see the master he loved so much. When the station agents learned why the dog appeared nightly, they started to feed him and cared for him while he kept his vigil. The dog became a landmark; is unaltering routine was known to commuters and townspeople alike. On the evening of March 7, 1935, they found Hachiko dead at the very spot where he had waited for so long for his owner to return.

By the time he died in 1935, nearly ten years after his master, Hachiko had become a legend. And the most fitting tribute that lovers meet there since Hachiko was waiting for someone he loved. In 1943 a small bronze statue of Hachiko was erected at the place where he had waited so patiently for ten years. But shortly  after it was put in place, the government confiscated all statues to be melted  down for arms during World War II. In 1948 a son of Teru Ando, the sculptor who  created the original statue of Hachiko, was commissioned to do another statue  which was eventually erected in the same location.