Faithful Elephants

The book “Faithful Elephants” by Yukio Tsuchiya shows that war does more damage than the stuff it does on the battlefield. During the story, there are three elephants that are condemned to an execution, because of World War 2. The Government commanded that the zookeepers kill all the dangerous zoo animals in Tokyo and the Ueno zoo. This meant that all the elephants John, Tonky, and Wanly were all executed.

            All three elephants were starved to death because they found no way to poison the elephants. Every zookeeper was shocked and had a huge emotional blow that would hurt them badly. The keeper said “you poor, pitiful elephants, and paced in front of the cage”. The keeper was seriously hurt by this sudden tragedy and was very unhappy. This happens during war, but we still attack other countries without considering the huge toll this can take.

            When the keeper gave Tonky and Wonky food, and all of the other keepers pretended not to see, and yet, it would be tossing aside the governments orders. All the keepers cared about the elephants and let the offending keeper get away with feeding the elephants. The keepers all care and they all felt the loss, because of a war that they had no choice in. The war did so much more damage than just the bombs being dropped. Every one hoped the elephants would survive longer, but they died.

            In Faithful Elephants, the author encourages you to think before you believe that war is the solution. It shows how damaging war is and how dangerous it can be to everyone’s emotions. This story challenges everyone’s decision