Dog and Nationalism − A Comparison of Ideas in Japanese and Serbian Cultures

Folkloristics 10/1 (2025): 75–91
Author: Danijela Vasić
Text:

The aim of this work is to show how some life stories can be used for propaganda purposes to raise national awareness. Japanese dog breeds, including the Akita inu, became the most important instrument of nationalism in the first half of the 20th century, when a nationalist movement to preserve Japanese cultural heritage emerged in response to the general westernization of the country. The Akita breed was declared a national treasure to be protected. One of the representatives of this species, Hachiko, even became known outside Japan when an article about it appeared in the daily newspaper Asahi Shinbun. The touching story about a dog that still faithfully waits for its master at the railway station years after his death, is actually a story about loyalty and duty to superiors (giri) at a time when the country was preparing for the Second World War. To show that there are similar stories in this region, I have chosen two themes. The news about Keruša Dena, who in 1995 managed to walk 500 kilometers from Petrinja near Zagreb to the refugee camp in Serbia in 139 days to find her family from whom she had been separated, is occasionally published in the Serbian media, especially when it comes to raising national awareness. Another story is about a new breed, the Serbian defense dog. It was bred by carefully crossing different dog breeds and a wolf in order to preserve a part of the neglected tradition of the Serbian people. The patriotic charge that follows these two topics in the newspapers and on websites culminates in the story of the “Leviathan” movement, in which the role of protector of endangered animals is just a pretence behind which an ultra-right militant formation is hiding.

Keywords: Japan, Serbia, nationalism, Hachiko, Akita, Serbian defense dog.