Faithful Elephants Blog Post

“Faithful Elephants,” By Sam Griffith

Wars affect everyone, not just people on the battlefield. Soldiers are shot, bombs are dropped, but the short story, “Faithful Elephants,” gave an uncommon perspective to one of the many far speared tragedies of war. It tells the story of the Ueno zoo in japan during World War Two and how it was forced to kill the animals it housed in fear of a bombs dropping on the zoo, letting the animals will wild all over the city only causing more havoc. It shows the effect this had on both the animals and the trainer of them.

The first effect the war had on the Ueno zoo was that the animals had to be killed. The first animals where able to be put down peacefully and humanely, the elephants on the other hand could not be penetrated by a needle. Eventually they decided how they would have to kill the animals. “The keepers reluctantly decided to starve him to death.” They began with one elephant named john they slowly watched him die. Then the killed the last two, Tonky and Wanly. All throughout their slow deaths they stayed faithful. Looking up at their trainers with pleading eyes they had complete trust that they would feed them as they used to.

The war also hurt the trainers who cared for their elephants with such a passion it would appear the elephants were his own children. You can see this in the beginning where it tells of a graveyard built for all of the animals, and the trainer slowly polishing the elephant’s gravestones. You can also see the crushing effect this had on his heart when he was starving the elephants and eventually broke down. “ ‘Oh, Tonky! Oh, Wanly!’ he Wailed and he dashed to the food shed. ‘Here!’ he said, sobbing, and clung to their thin legs. ‘Eat your food! Please drink. Drink your water!”

The depressing Story, “Faithful elephants,” makes readers question, “has anyone close to me been effected by a war?” The strong and emotional story of Tonky and Wanly also imposed another important question, “What can I do to prevent other horrible disasters like this from happening?”