Faithful Elephants

In the story “Faithful Elephants,” by Yukio Tsuchiya, it tells the tragic story of three elephants at the Ueno Zoo, who need to be killed because the Army believe that the bombs being dropped in Tokyo will affect the animals at the zoo. This short story teaches readers that war affects more then just the soldiers on the battlefield.

            The war affects animals in an obvious way. In the story, it says, “Therefore by command of the Army, all the lions, tigers, leopards, bears, and big snakes were poisoned to death.” The army forced the zoo to kill these animals cause they thought the cages would break if a bomb it the zoo, and the animals would escape and run wild. These animals were being killed because of the war progressing around them, and mainly the bombs being dropped. Also, later in the text, they have to kill the three elephants. The text reads, “over two weeks later, Tonky and Wonly we’re dead.” The zoo (by force of the army) had to kill these animals, but they only way they could was by starving them, which is like torture.

            The war didn’t just effect the elephants in the physical way, but it also affected the zookeepers, but in a more emotional sense.            The zookeepers loved the animals they worked with at the zoo, but they had to, by force or a higher rank, kill them. In the passage it says, “the zookeepers wanted so much to keep Tonky and Wanly alive that they thought of sending them to the zoo in Sendai, far north of Tokyo.” The zookeepers adored these animals so much, and they didn’t want to have to say goodbye. Also the zookeepers had to watch them die, in fact, they had to be the ones to kill them. They must have been devastated. For example, after Tonky and Wanly got up all their last strength to perform a trick for their trainer the text says, “the trainer could stand it no longer, ‘Oh Tonky! Oh Wanly!’ he wailed and dashed to the food shed.” Seeing the elephants suffer hurt the trainer emotionally. The other zookeepers say he trainer feeding the dying elephants and didn’t say anything. They too felt bad.

            As you can see, war has a greater impact on the life around it. “Faithful Elephants” forces the reader to comprehend that war goes beyond the battlefield, and an affect more than just the soldiers being killed.