Faithful Elephants (10/07/13

Faithful Elephants In Faithful Elephants: A True Story of Animals, People, and War by Yukio Tsuchiya, Japan was at war and the military ordered that the zoo keepers at the Ueno zoo kill all animals. This had an emotional toll on the zoo keepers and trainers. The zoo keepers loved all of the animals dearly, especially the three elephants, Tonky, Wanly, and John. The war affected everyone at the zoo in different ways. Throughout the story, many characters had conflicts but the central conflict was the killing of the three elephants. One way how the war affected the zoo keepers is that they had to kill the animals against their will. If it was up to the zoo keepers the animals wouldn’t have died. The military didn’t want the animals to be set free if a bomb were to hit the zoo. Although the author didn’t include that a bomb actually did hit the zoo, there was a strong chance that one would have because in the story it said that bombs dropped often during the war. “The zoo keepers wanted so much to keep Tonky and Wanly alive that they even thought of sending them to a zoo in Sendai, far north of Tokyo.” This shows how much they zoo keepers loved the elephants; they were going to go against the military just to save the elephants’ lives. The zoo keepers decided not to send them to the other zoo because there was still a possibility of something going wrong. During the time of the war the zoo keepers had to make some difficult decisions because of the effect that the war had on them. At the time of the war a lot of things were going on. Not only did the war affect the zoo keepers but the war also affected the animals. The animals were forced to have their lives end so suddenly. Because of the thick skin and smart thinking it was difficult to kill the elephants. As a result the elephants were starved to death, this didn’t happen right away though. John died seventeen days after the zoo keepers stopped feeding him and Tonky and Wanly died more than two weeks after the starvation started. It was rough for the elephants. They suffered without any food or water. This caused them to be thinner and un-healthy, they even begged for food and water. At one point when the starvation got so bad they did their banzai trick in hopes that the elephant trainer would give them food. “‘Oh Tonky! Oh Wanly!’ he wailed and dashed to the food shed. He carried food and pails of water to them and threw it at their feet… ‘Eat your food! Please drink. ‘” This shows how bad it ways. The animals were smart enough to think of ways to earn food and this was the last thing they could of have done. They hoped that their friend would give them food as a reward and they were right. The elephants were glad that the suffering came to a stop, although the food and water didn’t have a huge effect on them. The war hurt the zoo keepers in an emotional way also. When the elephants died everyone was confused, sad, or surprise. The zoo keepers thought that because the elephant trainer feed the elephants when he wasn’t supposed to. “’ The elephants are dead! They’re dead!’ screamed the elephant trainer as he ran into the office. He buried his head in his arms and cried, beating the desk top with his fists. The rest of the zoo keepers ran to the elephants’ cage and stumbled in. They took hold of Tonky’s and Wanly’s thin bodies, as if to shake them back to life. Everyone bursts into tears, then stroked the elephants’ legs and trunks in sorrow… ‘Stop the war! Stop the war! Stop all wars!’” this shows how emotional it was at the time. It was very difficult for all the zoo keepers to understand what happened fully. They wanted the elephants to stay alive so badly. When the elephants died the zoo keepers felt as if a piece of their hurt died. It was tough for all of the zoo keepers to see every last one of their beloved animals, who they loved as if they were their own children, gone and never coming back. This is another effected the war had on the characters of the story. After the war, the zoo keepers decided to remember this tragic time by building a tombstone at the zoo. The war left the zoo keepers sadden and hurt. It had and affected on both the animals and zoo keepers in many different ways.