Oscar
Mendez Reading
Response
Faithful
Elephants
By
Yukio Tsuchiya
Faithful Elephants, by Yukio Tsuchiya, is a beautiful
picture book that tells the story of John, Tonky, and Wanly, elephants of the
Ueno Zoo located in Tokyo, Japan during the Second World War. The book tells us
about the deaths of John, Tonky, and Wanly, which are killed out of fear that
these beloved elephants could wreak havoc on the streets of Japan. From this
text, we can infer that John, Tonky and Wanly represent those who suffered by
the violence created by war, and can conclude about the world that bad things come out of violence.
Many innocent lives are taken through violent events,
events such as war, like the life of John the elephant. During the Second World
War in Japan, the army commanded, “The
lions, tigers, leopards, bears, and big snakes poisoned to death,” Out of
the fear that if bombs broke the cages the animals were in would cause havoc on
the streets of Tokyo. The elephants were soon up to be killed. John was an
elephant that was loved by all, one who returned the love he received, and very
clever. He was attempted to be killed by poisoned potatoes, and clever John
only ate the good ones, and because syringes couldn’t penetrate his skin, “The keepers decided to starve him to death.
Poor John died seventeen days later.” John wouldn’t have hurt anyone, so
why was he killed? Out of fear, fear that arose from the war in which Japan was
in. His death came out of the war, therefore we can conclude that, bad things come out of violence.
Soon after the life of John was took, the turn of death
came to Tonky and Wanly. “These two had
always gazed at people with loving eyes. They were sweet and gentle hearted.
The zoo keepers wanted so much to keep Tonky and Wanly alive, that they thought
of sending them to the zoo in Sendai, far north of Tokyo.” But of course,
the fear of rampage created by the war left Tonky and Wanly, “Doomed to be killed at the Ueno Zoo, just
like all the other animals” The elephant keepers stopped feeding Tonky and
Wanly, whenever one walked by the cage, they would stagger up, as if to beg, “Give us something to eat. Please, give us
water!” The elephants became a sad shadow of their former selves, and soon
died, with not even one drop of water in their “Tub-sized bellies.” These beloved elephants were again killed
because of fear that arose from War, and we can further conclude that bad things come out of violence.
We saw through the
deaths of John, Tonky, and Wanly the elephants, that bad things come out of violence, that in this case, bad things
means the deaths of the innocent and loved, and violence - the war. Once the
elephants died, the elephant trainer and keepers that once cared for the
elephants, could now only “Burst into
tears,” and, “Stroke the elephant’s
legs and trunks in sorrow.” They cared for the elephants very much, but
because of the war were forced to lay them to rest. John, Tonky, Wanly, and the
keepers who once cared for them suffered from the violence the war created. We
now know that bad things come out of violence, and can ask ourselves if one
victory, is worth the thousands of lives that are lost.
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