Antarctica has always been a proving ground for survival. Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance expedition saw twenty‑eight men endure shipwreck, drifting ice, and an open‑boat voyage across the Southern Ocean. Yet all returned alive. Douglas Mawson staggered hundreds of miles alone after losing his companions, his body failing even as his will refused to. Earlier still, the crew of the Belgica survived the first forced Antarctic winter by learning how to live off seal and penguin meat, while later explorers like Richard Byrd nearly died attempting solitary winters on the ice.
These stories have shaped how Antarctica is remembered—as a continent where survival depends on endurance, leadership, and adaptability. Almost all of them are human stories.
Yet one of the most extraordinary survival tales from Antarctica belongs not to men, but to the dogs pulling sledges. This is the story of two Sakhalin huskies, Taro and Jiro.
The statues of Taro and Jiro in Nagoya. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
In 1957, the Japan National Institute of Polar Research launched a multi-year scientific programme in Antarctica as part of the International Geophysical Year. That January, the expedition established Showa Station on East Ongul Island and dispatched a team of eleven researchers, accompanied by fifteen Sakhalin huskies trained for sled work. Among the dogs were Taro and Jiro, three-year-old brothers and the youngest members of the team.
The plan was for the researchers to remain at Showa Station for a full year, to be relieved by a second expedition in February 1958. But the ship carrying the replacement crew was severely damaged by dense pack ice near the Antarctic coast, making it impossible to overwinter. Eventually, a helicopter from an American icebreaker called Burton Island had to airlift the men. In doing so, they had to leave behind the fifteen sled dogs.
The decision was agonizing. The dogs were essential companions, not expendable tools. But circumstances allowed for no alternative. The animals were tethered, supplied with limited provisions, and left as the expedition retreated north, uncertain whether any would survive the Antarctic winter.
Taro and Jiro plays with expedition Team member Taiichi Kitamura in January 1959 after their rescue. Credit: The Asahi Shimbun Collection
Nearly a year later, in January 1959, a second Japanese expedition arrived at Showa Station expecting to find fifteen dead dogs. They found that seven dogs had died while still chained, but eight had broken free. Among them, Taro and Jiro were still alive. Against all reasonable odds, they had endured months of darkness, sub-zero temperatures, and near-total isolation.
Investigators believe Taro and Jiro escaped their restraints and learned to hunt. They possibly lived off seals, penguins, and remains left by other predators. There were so signs of cannibalism upon the bodies of their dead brothers.
News of the dogs’ survival spread quickly in Japan, where Taro and Jiro became national symbols of resilience. They were celebrated in books, films, and school lessons as well as monuments.
Jiro continued to stay in Antarctica to pull sleds until his death in 1960. Taro returned to his hometown Sapporo and lived at Hokkaido University until he died of old age in 1970. Taro's body was embalmed and is on display at the Museum of National Treasures at the Botanical Garden of Hokkaido University, and Jiro's body was embalmed and is on display at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo, the same museum where Hachiko is on display.
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