In the book Faithful Elephants by Yukio Tsuchiya, he teaches a lesson to all of
us. His lesson is war affects everyone not just soldiers in the war. This
is an important theme in the book because the animals were being affected as
well as the zoo keepers who worked in the zoo. But most importantly the
elephants Tonky and Wanly were the most who were affected by this war.
The zoo keepers had been ordered by the government
to kill all the zoo animals because since Tokyo, Japan was going to be bombed,
the government was afraid that the zoo animals would escape and cause more
damage to the city. The zoo keepers killed all the animals in the zoo one by
one until only two elephants Tonky and Wanly were left. Since they were hard to
kill, they thought the elephants should be killed by starving them. As days
went by, they got thinner and weaker but they still did there Bonsai trick.
Then came a day when their trainer said “Oh Tonky, Oh Wanly”. He ran and got
them food and water. “Eat your food, please drink, drink your water”. The zoo keeper
was suffering inside because the elephants were so thin that they did their
Bonsai trick to be food. Then came the day when the elephants died and all the
zoo keepers were shouting at the planes dropping bombs, “Stop the war, stop the
war”.
War will always affect everyone. Tonky and Wanly
were innocent elephants that did not have to do with the conflict of Japan with
other countries. As well as the zoo keepers and the animals in the Ueno zoo. This
is similar to 9/11. The passengers ant their families had nothing to do with
the problem yet they were the ones who suffered the most. No matter where and
why, our countries conflicts will always involve us to suffer.
