My hero?! WTF?!

Well, according to your dictionary an anti-drug dog wouldn't be considered a hero neither, because it's not a person.

spending ten years faithfully waiting for your best friend until you die is a special achievement in the field of loyalty and friendship. did Hachi save anyones life? no, would he have risked his life for parker? yes.

Hachi is considered a hero. Not everyone's definition of "hero" is the same. Like many people say...you don't need to save someone's life, or defuse a bomb to be considered a hero. You can be someone's hero just by comforting them if they are sick or dying, that person didn't stop them from dying or make them healthly again, but they made them feel better during their illness or during time they had left. Many kids consider their parents as their hero's, but their parents didn't save their lives, they gave them life but that's it. That parent also didn't necessarily prevent any accidents. Many people also consider family members who went through a hardship and survived, such as cancer as heros, but those people, didn't necessarily do anything other than overcome those obstacles (I consider my grandmother who overcame breast cancer a hero of mine).

What Hachi had done completely defines "your dictionary's" defintion;

Did Hachi have courage...yes. To go out on your own and sleep under a train in the cold, wet, hot weather with no definate source of food when you have a climate controlled home and food to eat is couragous. Apparently, the "real" Hachi had it even worse with the people not greeting him as friendly as the people did in the movie - they seemed to have been quite cruel to him and to continue to show up every single day like that is what I consider courage...I wouldn't have done that.

Was Hachi noble...yes, he was. He was noble in his loyalty to his human and proved it by showing up everyday faithfully to greet his human and welcome him home with so much love. Not many humans can say that they do that.

Did Hachi risk or sacrificed his life...yes. Hachi risked his life by becoming a "street dog" and living without the comforts of a warm home and a full belly. Yes, people did feed him, but it seems he only got bits of hotdog/buns and a small piece of meat from the store once a day (compared to my dogs who eat 2-3 cups of kibble a day...not to mention the amount of people food they get - that's not much). Again, the movie version seems to "brighten" this aspect of the real story - as said the real Hachi was cruely treated and probably not fed by the people at the station or in the town. He did also sacrifced his life as he sacrifced living the "good life" as a pet for that of a "hard life"

Was Hachi noted for a special achievement in a particular field...yes. Hachi should be noted for a special achievement in the particular fields of courage, nobility, and sacrifce, not to mention love and loyalty and all the happiness he brought to his human while the human was alive. Only a dog owner/lover can understand the true love that a dog (same goes for cats) can show someone. A dog isn't going to say "I have a headache" when you need someone to talk to, they are always happy to see you, they love to give kisses and hugs when you need them, and they always try to make you feel better when you are sad.

So the boy at the start of the movie was perfectly in his right to have Hachi as his hero. He may not have known Hachi very well, as it seems the boy was only an infant when Hachi left home for good, but just hearing of his story was enough for the boy to realize that Hachi was his hero as he inbibed all the qualities the boy felt made a hero.

If you don't like it, that's fine - your qualities of what makes a hero are just different and if someone tries to tell you that your hero isn't really a hero, you will hopefully understand that their qualities differ from yours and see if you can get them to understand your point of view.

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