Jdrama : Nankyoku Tairiku 南极大陆

Taro and Jiro at the rear of the pack

• I like dogs. I like Takuya Kimura. I like watching inspirational dramas based on true life events. This here ticks all my boxes. +Bonus = Show with no bad guys.
• Feb 1957 : Japan's first expedition to the South Pole.  Base station built and 11 men and 15 Sakhalin Huskies were left behind for research purposes.
• Feb 1958 : 2nd expedition sent to take over but unable to get close to the base due to extreme weather conditions. 1st team evacuated by air. Thinking that the 2nd team would make it to the base soon, the 15 sled dogs were chained with 1 week's supply of food. Unfortunately, the dogs had to be abandoned and the entire crew returned to Japan to face public criticism.
• 14 Jan 1959 : A year later, 3rd expedition team arrived at the base to find 7 had dogs died still chained. The others had broken free; of which only Taro and Jiro had managed to survive to greet the team.
• Jiro died during the 5th expedition in 1960. Taro lived on till 1970 at Hokkaido University. They were the youngest of the original team of dogs (1-4 years old).
• Watch Episode 7 here (does not work on iOS). This is where the dogs get left behind and the series really take off from here. Guaranteed to make you cry. 10 episodes of 1 hour each.
• This is how nation-building is done. Not the current rage of blaming FTs (foreigners) for every single thing that is wrong with our country. Too much already.