Before World War Ⅱ, there were four elephants in a zoo in Nagoya. During the war, animals had a hard time.
One day sodiers came to the zoo and said, “During a war anything can happen. Animals run away and hurt people. You must kill the animals. We have to think of people first.”
The men at the zoo said, “Kill our animals? No! We can't!”
But the soldiers shot a lot of animals.
The men at the zoo said, “Please, don’t shoot the elephants! They are gentle.”
The soldiers said, “You may keep the elephants. But can you feed them?”
After all, only two elephants lived through the war. The other elephants died of hunger.
The war came to an end, and the Japanese people didn't have to kill animals any longer. But the elephants in Nagoya were the only elephants in all Japan.
Children in other cities heard of the elephants in Nagoya. Many of them wrote letters to the zoo. They said, “Please bring the elephants to our city.” But the elephants weren't very strong. They coudn't travel.
Then the people at JNR heard about the children's wish. “Let's take children to Nagoya instead,” they said. So they ran “elephant trains.”
Each train brought lots of happy children to Nagoya. And all over Japan many other children were waiting for their turn.
“May we ride on the elephants?” asked the children.
“Sure!” the men at the zoo answered. “Pease is wonderful,” they thought. “Both the children and the elephants are happy.”
