(from the How Stuff Works website)
Hachiko and Eisaburo
The yellow-coated Akita named Hachiko was born in November 1923 in the province that is the namesake of his breed. A few months after his birth, little "Hachi" (as he came to be called) was brought to the home of Professor Eisaburo Uyeno (or Ueno) in Tokyo. The two became fast friends. Each morning, Hachiko accompanied his master to the Shibuya train station. Uyeno taught at the Imperial University, and Hachiko made it his habit to see his master off. Each evening, Hachiko returned to the train station, and when Uyeno got off the train, he found his dog awaiting his arrival, tail wagging happily at the sight of his owner and friend.
The pair continued their daily routine until May 1925, when Uyeno didn't return on the usual train one evening. The professor had suffered a stroke at the university that day. He died and never returned to the train station where his friend was waiting.
Hachiko was given away after his master's death, but he routinely escaped, showing up again and again at his old home. After time, Hachi apparently realized that Professor Uyeno no longer lived at the house. So he went to look for his master at the train station where he had accompanied him so many times before. Each day, Hachiko waited for Uyeno to return. And each day he didn't see his friend among the commuters at the station.
The permanent fixture at the train station that was Hachiko attracted the attention of other commuters. Many of the people who frequented the Shibuya train station had seen Hachi and Professor Uyeno together each day. Realizing that Hachiko waited in vigil for his dead master, their hearts were touched. They brought Hachiko treats and food to nourish him during his wait.
News of Hachiko's remarkable loyalty eventually made its way outside of Tokyo, and he became something of an iconic figure in Japan. A statue of Hachiko forged by sculptor Ando Teru was erected at the train station in 1934, where Hachiko had been awaiting his master's return each day for nearly 10 years. During that time, he had come down with mange, fended off numerous street mongrels and contracted heartworms. Despite all of the hardships he encountered, he continued to wait.
On March 8, 1935, Hachiko laid down to die in the spot where he had spent a decade waiting each day for Uyeno to come home [source: The Tribune]. His bones were buried next to his master's grave.
Hachiko's death was mourned by his nation. As Japan entered World War II, and all metals became precious, however, sentimentality gave way to practicality. The statue of Hachiko was removed from its pedestal and melted for use as arms in April 1944.
After the war, a group of Tokyo residents commissioned Ando Takeshi, the son of the original statue's sculptor, to create a replacement. It was erected in 1948, and it sits at the train station today.
Travel writer Cheri Sicard wrote of a man she encountered at this statue at Shibuya station. "During my last visit with 'Hachi,' I encountered an old man who had also come to pay his respects. He told me in broken English, 'I knew him. I used to bring him treats' … With that he approached the statue, gave it a friendly pat, wiped a tear from his eye and slowly walked away" [source: Sicard].
Here's the video - the author took clips from the movie Hachiko Monogatari (Japan, 1987) and added a song.
I'm not in a political mood anymore tonight. I'll work on it this weekend. I kinda got into it with Robert at the last Tuesday Bible study. It's just that I was hearing the tired old leftist dogma from him, the worldview that the liberally-dominated news media wants everyone to believe in, that corporations are evil, government is our only savior (or is that Savior?), all suffering in the world is that fault of the greedy, heartless corporations and banker types, and the Democrats are the only real hope we have. Robert was explaining to the group how the mortgage crisis is PRIMARILY the fault of the evil banks who mislead the people getting the loans - the greed of the banks led them to make these loans they knew wouldn't be repaid.
I'm sorry, but that is a true WTF moment. (Trying to keep it PG, or maybe even G if I try really hard, but I can get passionate about these things sometimes, especially when I see people espousing ideas that are just plain, flat out WRONG!!!) Okay, let's play What If: what if I'm a bank? I make loans and people pay them back, with interest. That's how I make money. If I make loans that aren't going to be repaid, I lose money. So why would I want to make loans to people I knew couldn't afford them??
Contrary to Robert's position, the preponderance of evidence shows that, beginning with Carter, and especially with the Clinton administration, government began putting pressure on banks to make loans to disadvantaged people, so more Americans would be able to afford a house. A noble goal. Absolutley, no question about that. The means taken to achieve this goal...that's another story. Attorney General Janet Reno (in the Clinton administration) actually threatened banks with legal action if they did not make a certain percentage of their home loans to people who couldn't really afford to buy a house. I'm too damn tired to search the internet for citations tonight - we'll try again this weekend.
The other point is that despite how the current Congressional leadership (and I use the term lightly) is trying to point the finger of blame on (can you guess??) President Bush, it was Bush who attempted 12 times in his two terms as president to get Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac regulated - and each time, the Congressional leadership (Pelosi, Dodd and especially Barney Frank - dare I mention Obama) shot the attempts down. Go to Youtube and search for Barney Frank and Fannie Mae Hearings. You'll find several clips of Frank saying that there is absolutely nothing wrong with those two institutions - on several different occasions. He flat out lied - and that is something only the Evil Conservatives do, right?
Bollux! The government is directly responsible for the mortgage crisis we're in. Robert made the case that is was the greedy banks who were at fault. Has greed been a problem in our country? Damn straight. Are some corporations out for the Almighty Dollar and don't care a rat's behind how they get it? Sure there are! My problem with Robert's view is that they tend to think capitalism (which is based on the desire for profit, if you simplify it way way down) is evil - even if they don't come out and say it, that idea is at the foundation for much of modern liberal thought. And alot of Americans accept it simply because the news media have shifted to the left -I'm not talking about opinion, like talk radio or various pundits who have TV shows that are obviously opinionated. I am referring to news reporters - people who tout themselves as journalists, reporting the news objectively. Watch MSNBC sometime and tell me if they have an objective point of view. CNN? Oh please. They've made great strides recently, such as giving Lou Dobbs a show. But his show isn't touted as objective reporting - he's editorializing. Americans who tune in to the nightly news, however, watch it expecting to receive information without bias. With the news media acting the way it has during this campaign, I think Walter Cronkite must be spinning in his grave.
Anyway, alot of Americans accept the worldview given to them but the so-called objective news media. When you try to counter that way of thinking, sometimes they get very defensive. I knew Robert had reached that point Tuesday night when, in response to some point I had made about the true cause of the mortgage crisis, he exclaimed, "Bulls**t!" I knew I'd hit a nerve then, ha ha. Robert is one of the nicest, gentle spirits I know. But I was questioning his worldview on this issue, and he responded with an exclamation of disbelief (putting it mildly).
Later on, we reaffirmed that it's okay to disagree (even though I was right, ha ha). Things calmed down afer that. In fact, Robert and I do agree on several points, just not the cause of the financial meltdown we're experiencing.
My point is that people need to wake up and do some fact-finding of their own, not simply accepting what the media chooses to say.
Dang, I said I wasn't going to go political tonight. So much for empty promises. Perhaps I should become a politician? ha ha
2 comments:
wwww that almost made me cry!
Awww, the Hachiko story is very cute!
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