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A zookeeper at the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo tells a story about a long time ago when Japan was at war. Bombs were dropped on Tokyo day and night, like falling rain. Some people worried about what might happen if bombs hit the city's zoo. "If the cages were broken and dangerous animals escaped to run wild through the city, it would be terrible!" Therefore, by command of the army, the animals were to be ki... More

A zookeeper at the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo tells a story about a long time ago when Japan was at war. Bombs were dropped on Tokyo day and night, like falling rain. Some people worried about what might happen if bombs hit the city's zoo. "If the cages were broken and dangerous animals escaped to run wild through the city, it would be terrible!" Therefore, by command of the army, the animals were to be killed. The zookeeper sadly continues his tale of John, Tonky, and Wanly -- three performing elephants at the Ueno Zoo whose turn it was to die -- and of their keepers, who wept and who prayed that the war would end so that their beloved elephants might be saved. Yukio Tsuchiya's story will no reader unmoved. Ted Lew-in's sensitive watercolors express all of the emotion and pathos of this tragic, true tale. Faithful Elephants was first published in Japan in 1951. The story has since seen seventy printings there, and it is read alound on Japanese radio every year to mark the anniversary of Japan's surrneder in World War II. A tomb on the Ueno grounds contains the bodies of John, Tonky, and Wanly, other animals killed during the war, and all the anials who have lived and died at the zoo. The monument is continuously decorated with senba-tsuru, thousands of paper cranes made by children. The cranes represent prayers that the souls of these animals will find their way to heaven in peace.

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