Here Comes the Elephant Train!

第二次世界大戦下、日本中がとても厳しい状況にありました。
動物園も例外ではありません。
その多くでは、戦火で檻が壊されることを恐れ、危険な動物は処分されました。
そんななかをくぐり抜け、ある動物園で２頭の象が生き残りました。
やがて、子供たちの人気者となったこの象には、当時の人々のどんな思いが込められていたのでしょうか。

TRACK25　第二次世界大戦下、名古屋の動物園はどんな状態だったのでしょう？

　Before World War　Ⅱ, there were four elephants in a zoo in Nagoya.

During the war, animals had a hard time.

　One day soldiers came to the zoo and said, “During a war anything can happen.

Animals can 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!”

TRACK26　生き残った動物は何でしたか？

　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 throught the war.

The other elephants died of hunger.

TRACK27　終戦後、動物園にどんな手紙が届きましたか？

　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 couldn’t travel.

TRACK28　「ぞう列車」とは何ですか？

　Then the people at JNR heard about the children’s wish.

“Let’s a 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.

“Peace is wonderful,” they thought.

“Both the children and the elephants are happy.”