Faithful Elephants Blog Post

            The story, “Faithful Elephants: A true Story of Animals, People, and War,” by Yukio Tsuchiya, is about three elephants named Tonky, Wanly, and John. These three elephants lived in a zoo called the Ueno Zoo during world war two. These three elephants had to be killed, sadly, because the army commanded them to, they were afraid the elephants were going to run wild through the city. When the time came, each elephant was starved to death. It was a very hard time for the zoo keepers.

            It was very hard for the zoo keepers because they cared for the elephants for so long. For example, when it was john’s turn to die, they just wanted to get over with it by poisoning his food so he didn’t have to suffer from starvation. However, John was far to smart to eat poisoned potatoes, so the zoo keepers decided, “As it seems to be no other way, we must inject poison into his body.” They brought a syringe and tried to poison him with a needle, however, that didn’t work either because his skin was too thick. Thus, they ended up starving him to death. The zoo keepers were heartbroken.

            When it came to Wanly and Tonky, the zoo keepers were devastated. Tonky and Wanly had to also be starved to death. The zoo keepers loved them so much that they were willing to send them to Sendai, but they were afraid bombs were going to be dropped there too.  In addition, their trainer loved them so much that when they did their famous Bonzai trick he fed them food because he couldn’t stand to see them suffer anymore. “Oh, Tonky, Oh, Wanly!” he wailed, “Here!” he said sobbing, and clung to their thin legs, “Eat your food! Please drink. Drink your water!” Moreover, the zoo keepers pretended not to se anything, nor did they try to stop him, they too wanted them to survive while they could. Furthermore, they and the trainer could no longer bare to see the elephants suffer anymore, in result, stopped visiting them. Consequently, the elephants died while doing the Bonzai trick. “Stop the war! Stop all wars!” implored the zoo keepers when they found elephant’s thin bodies in their cage. This proves that they didn’t want the elephants to die, not like this. In addition, the zoo keeper telling the story also felt the same way because he was also crying.

            In conclusion, the zoo keepers did care for all the elephants very much. They did all they could to keep them alive, fed them, gave them water, even tried to let them die painlessly with poison (instead of starving them). In addition, they did what the elephants would’ve wanted, to be buried under the monument, peacefully. I also think that their death was probably really hard for not only the zoo keepers, but the visitors that came to the zoo just to see the elephants. I think that they would miss them doing the Bonzai trick. Adding on, I think their death was taken the hardest by the trainer because he trained and took care of them for most of their life. In the same way, I would have felt broken too if my cat, Bella, was forced to die of starvation. Overall, their death was very devastating to everyone.