The story of “Winnie the Pooh” is very famous in the world. The story was first appeared in the London Evening News in 1925 by Alan A Milne. Today this story is translated into more than 40 languages and is read around the world.

Captain Harry Colebourn, who was a Canadian soldier, got a bear cub across the Atlantic when he was staying near Wiltshire. When he went to war in France, he gave the cub to London Zoo. He named it Winniepeg after his hometown. To make it shorter, he was named Winnie. It is he that inspired the story of “Winnie the Pooh.” Christopher Robin, who appears in the story, stemed from Alan’s own son. Other charming characters are inspired by stuffed animals which he had those days.

Though I have read the story many times, I did not know the backgrounds of “Winnie the Pooh.” I never imagined that Pooh comes from the cub donated to London Zoo by a captain in war. I came to realize that there are lots of stories passed down not only in Japan but also in foreign countries. They could be both fiction and nonfiction. I think the point is that all the story handed down by ancestors have lessons or something they want to tell descendants. This story could be intended to show the pity of a cub which was isolated by war done by human beings. In Japan, stories from abroad are so familiar with us. It may be interesting for us to think about history or the way they think in foreign countries.