Faithful Elephants by Yukio Tsuchiya

   Faithful Elephants by Yukio Tsuchiya is a tragical, sorrowful story about 3 lovely elephants. It takes place on a Zoo in Japan. Cherry blossoms petals are falling like rain drops, an employee of the Zoo starts telling a tragical story. There was a War going on at that time, and the commander of the Army declared all animals from the Zoo to be killed. John was a very clever elephant, he loved potatoes. John had to be killed so the zoo keeper poisoned some potatoes. However, whenever he brought a poisoned potatoe to his mouth he threw it to the ground. They had no choice but to starve him to death after they tried to inject poison with a big needle, but the needle split in half on John's skin. John died 17 days later. Next, were Tonky and Wanly's turn. These two elephants were very sweet and gentle hearted. The zoo keepers loved them so much, that they planned on sending them to Sendai. But what if bombs fall there too? Tonky and Wanly had to be starve to death too, they died two weeks later.
    Faithful Elephants, shows to have hope/faith. In the story when John is given poisoned potatoes he doesn’t eat them, it’s as if he knows or smells the poison. It’s amazing how John’s skin is so hard like a rock that the needles split in half. This quote from the story is a very heartbroken part,” as the days passed, the elephants became thinner and weaker. Whenever a keeper walked by their cage, they would stand up, tottering as if to beg give us something to eat. Please give us water. Their loving eyes became to look like rubber balls in their dropping, shrunken faces.” This quote is very strong. It also shows that not even the littlest strength they had made them loose hopes, they begged for food and water.
    When the author said, “their eyes look like round rubber balls in their drooping shrunken faces.” This is a really tragical moment. I really thought that the zoo keepers were cruel, because how can they have those poor pitiful elephants hungry and thirsty.
    However, when I read this quote, “all this while, the elephant’s trainer loved them so much as if they were his own children. He would pace in front of the cage and moan, you poor, poor, pitiful elephants!” I knew right away that the zoo keeper wasn’t cruel he loved them as much as his own children. When the author said “pacing in front of the cage” this made me think what if the zoo keeper has hope and wants to save them and its thinking about a plan or something? Even when the elephants did their Banzai trick, and the zoo keeper dashed for food and water and he said, “eat your food and water” as he was clung to their legs and sobbing. This also meant he loved them so much.
    A very important quote from the story was, “everyone was hoping and praying, that the elephants could survive only one more day, the war might be over and the elephants would be saved.”This proves that that the zoo keepers and the elephants had hope it even says it in this quote. The zoo keepers loved them very much.
    Overall, hope and faith was what the zoo keepers and the elephants had. This story was a very touching and heartbroken story. I never taught that innocent animals can be involved in war that would cause them to die like that.