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Synopsis
After the war ends, Hide, a caring brother, makes a promise to his gravely ill sister Miyoko: he will bring her to see an elephant in real life. When he goes to the zoo, he meets an elderly man who recounts the tragic tale of how every zoo animal was put to death to prevent possible danger if Allied bombing had allowed them to escape. The narrative is based on true events at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo, where during WWII, dangerous creatures were eliminated to prevent chaos should bombings enable their escape. The methods of killing included starvation, poisoning, shooting, and decapitation. Although the zoo's animals were destroyed more than a year before Tokyo suffered heavy bombing, Ueno Zoo itself stayed unharmed during the entire war.
