Faithful Elephants Themes Essay

    
 William Goldberg 813


     The short, picture book "Faithful Elephants" written by Yukio Tsuchiya, is a tale of a devastated Ueno Zoo during the bombings of Japan near the end of World War II. In the book, three elephants (John, Tonky, Wanly) plus a multitude of other animals in the zoo are brutally murdered by the zookeepers in order to make sure the animals wouldn't be let loose upon the streets if the zoo was bombed. Because of this and more, "Faithful Elephants" has become a very controversial book. There are many reasons to this, but I think that the many not so child friendly themes easily found in this book have made this outcome.
     One of the themes that made this book controversial war, a naturally disliked topic for parents. Although war is not mentioned constantly, it's always in the background of the story. It's the reason for the animals' suffering so many adults didn't like war in the book. War is mentioned when an employee at the zoo says "...At that time, Japan was at war...". He also mentions that if bombs were dropped on the zoo animals would get loose and rampage through the city. Because of this, war is seen as a controversial theme in the book.
     Another theme in "Faithful Elephants" found to not be suitable for kids is animal abuse. And by this I mean the terrible starvation of innocent animals. In the story, all of the animals in the zoo have to be poisoned except for the elephants. The elephants' skin was proved to be too hard for poisonous syringes so in turn the elephants were each tortured for at least two weeks by not being given any food for that time period. In fact, the book describes in depth the terrible ending of their lives. This could easily cause adults to not want younger people to read this story.
     In conclusion, the book "Faithful Elephants" written by Yukio Tsuchiya, is a controversial, more serious, kids book for a number of reasons but mainly for its daring themes. "Faithful Elephants" allows us to truly understand the effects war can have on anyone, anywhere.