Faithful Elephants by Yukio Tsuchiya

“Faithful Elephants”

            The short story “Faithful Elephants by Yukio Tsuchiya, is about the tragic deaths of Tonky, Wanly, and John, 3 elephants in Ueno Zoo.  The government ordered to have the dangerous animals killed in case a bombed dropped and the animals would be let loose.  This story teacher the reader that war affects not only the soldiers, but also the civilians and the things around them.

            When people  think of what is being affected in war, they think of the obvious.  “Faithful Elephants” helps show that many divers places are also being touched by war.  “If the cages were broken… it would be terrible! Therefore by command of the army, all the lions, tigers, leopards, bears and big snakes were poisoned to death.”  If it weren’t for the war, all of the animals would be alive.   Once it was time for the elephants, they started by trying to put poison in John’s potatoes.  When that didn’t work, they tried injecting him, but the needle broke.  Finally they resolved to starve him.  John died after 17 days.  The same method was used for Tonky and Wanly, and it took them two long and dreadful weeks for them to die.

            Because the zookeepers were attached to the elephants, the elephants passing too pained them.  It was torturous for them to watch them starve.  “He [the trainer] could only pace in front of the cage and man, ‘You poor, poor, pitiful elephants!’”  What the author is illustrating by this is that in times of war, many people lose close ones. All of the workers were devastated when they couldn’t feed them, and everyone in the zoo came to tears once the elephants were finally gone.  “The rest of the zookeepers ran to the elephants’ cage and stumbled in… Everyone burst into teas, then stroked the elephants’ legs and trunks in sorrow.”

            This shows how ordinary people and innocent animals can be affected in the middle of war.  “Faithful Elephants” reminds us that war hurts many people, but also that you don’t have to be directly in a battlefield to be ruined by war.  The author made it clear that war causes death and sorrow in obvious and less obvious ways.