Taro and Jiro. The story of the heroic wintering of dogs (7 photos)

Everyone knows the monument to loyalty - the dog Hachiko in Japan. However, there are monuments in the country to other dogs that touched the human soul, and the most controversial and heartbreaking story for me was not Hachiko, but the two dogs Taro and Jiro.





A monument to those same Taro and Jiro, in life they were shaggier

The story of a great betrayal

By breed they were sled dogs, they were taken with a pack of 15 dogs to Antarctica by Japanese scientists in 1957.

A group of scientists was delivered to Antarctica on the military ship Soya, helped to assemble the research station Showa, and then left to live here for a year.

The dogs were used for driving, dog teams turned out to be much more mobile and convenient than the all-terrain vehicles of those years.



Here are the dogs from the teams that carried the people who abandoned them

But when the year of research ended, no one came to pick up the scientists. The icebreaker with the replacements got stuck due to thick ice and was unable to approach the Seva station. So they sent a helicopter for them.

The only problem was that the scientists got into the helicopter, but the dogs did not. They decided to leave the dogs alone at the station, and then the helicopter would fly in for them on the second run. For some reason they didn't take half of the dogs with their owners, and then didn't come back for the other half of the dogs and people.





Photos of Taro and Jiro, which were sent to Japan

When the helicopter returned to the icebreaker, the weather suddenly deteriorated, so they decided not to take off a second time. And then they considered it dangerous to stand and freeze into the ice, so they all swam away. But they left the dogs, moreover, they left them tied up!

Of course, when the scientists told the mainland about everything, the public condemned them, everyone felt sorry for the dogs, because they would definitely die tied up, and in the cold.

And in 1958, a monument was erected in Shiba Park in honor of the dogs abandoned to their deaths.



That same monument to 15 dogs in advance, when they did not yet know that not all died

Incredible Taro and Jiro

But in 1959, Japan managed to assemble and send a new group of researchers to the same Syowa station in Antarctica. And to their surprise, they found two surviving dogs - Taro and Jiro! Very, very furry Taro and Jiro, they had grown twice as much fur. They were able to break free from the leash!

And for 11 months they survived in this cold, most likely eating penguins and scraps from the victims of other predators.



A stuffed animal was made from Jiro as a souvenir. And from Taro - too

And after this meeting, they were allowed to live at the station! Jiro lived at the station for another two years and died there, and Taro was sent to the mainland three years later, and in total he lived 10 years longer than Jiro - he died in 1970.

Taro's stuffed body is still on display at the Hokkaido Museum of National Treasures, and Jiro's is on display at the Tokyo Museum. A coin with their images was issued in their honor, then stamps. And the monument in their honor is considered a monument to perseverance and the will to live.



Stamps in honor of the dogs from the expedition

By the way, if you have seen the film "White Captivity", then it was filmed based on this story.

But the story itself doesn't leave me alone. They were simply abandoned, and then, when they were found again, they weren't even taken back right away. Didn't they deserve at least a good life as an apology?

Yes, the Japanese felt sorry for these dogs, but what did they really do when they discovered that the animals they had betrayed had survived? Besides stuffing them.



In "White Captivity" everything is not so mean, and you somehow empathize with the people too, but here - no

For me, this is a story of double betrayal - first they abandoned them, and then they did not atone for their guilt. Although, perhaps, 50 years ago times were different – ​​harsher, and dogs were considered expendable.