Faithful Elephants: A True Story of Animals, People and War by Yukio Tsuchiya

        The story Faithful Elephants by Yukio Tsuchiya is a touching story. This story is about how three elephants, John, Tonky and Wanly, as well as all the other zoo animals are forced to decease during war. This was all because of the command the army made because they did not want wild zoo animals running around.
        In Ueno Zoo, before the war, everything was assumingly quite fine. Until, all the wild zoo animals had to die. This is proven in the story: "by command of the Army, all of the lions, tigers, leopards, bears and big snakes were poisoned to death". My first response to this was 'but they are only animals! Animals don't deserve to be poisoned to death, no not at all'. It was at this point that I concluded that the military basically controlled everything, at least in this story (the military has control over the zoo keepers, zoo trainers, etc.)The zoo keepers, trainers, etc. have no choice but to somehow kill these animals by whatever means: poison, murder, starvation, etc.
        The first elephant who died was John. I believe a symbol to represent John is the syringe. This is so because in Faithful Elephants the elephant keepers tried and tried to kill John many times. Fist by poison food, then poison directly injected, then starvation. Overall, the process to kill John the Elephant took quite some time. With the syringe, a tool the elephant keepers tried to kill John with, the needle kept breaking and breaking and breaking because the skin of John the Elephant was really tough. So clearly, in my opinion, the syringe must represent John.
        After John, Tonky and Wanly were the next victims (that were elephants) to die. To further prove what I mentioned above that the military controls everything is the following from the passage: "The zoo keepers wanted so much to keep Tonky and Wanly  alive that they thought of sending them to Sendai, far north of Tokyo." However, they could send Tonky and Wanly to Sendai because the elephants could have escaped and run freely in Sendai. So the elephant keepers and the elephant trainers had to kill the innocent elephants by whatever means. Furthermore, one can tell that the elephant keepers and trainers do not want to kill Tonky and Wanly but have no choice. The passage proves this: "The trainer could stand it no longer.... dashed to the food shed. He carried food and pails of water to them.... No one was supposed to give them water. But everyone was hoping and praying... if the elephants could survive only one more day then war might be over and the elephants would be saved". Unfortunately, Tonky and Wanly starved to death.
        To conclude, the military in the passage Faithful Elephants by Yukio Tsuchiya had control over basically everything (the elephants and other animals, trainers, etc.). If not for the army, John, Tonky and Wanly, as well as all the other wild zoo animals would have not been forced to be killed by their own trainers and the zookeepers themselves.