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By Riku Nagata Tokyo, Nov. 21 (Jiji Press)–Following the end of World War II, Ueno Zoo worked tirelessly to rebuild itself after losing popular animals such as elephants to wartime culling. Enlivened by the Children’s Zoo and the monkey train, Ueno Zoo saw the number of visitors rebound from around 290,000 in fiscal 1945 to 2.37 million in fiscal 1948. This second installment of the two-part series explores the zoo’s recovery through Japan’s postwar economic boom to the present day, accentuated by the construction of the country’s first monorail and the arrival of giant pandas. Indira, Elephant Ambassador of Love and Friendship As Ueno Zoo’s visitor numbers recovered, calls grew for the return of elephants, which had not been displayed at the zoo since the wartime culling. This prompted the Tokyo metropolitan government and the Asahi Shimbun daily newspaper to run a campaign to bring an elephant to the zoo. More than 800 letters from children asking for an elephant were sent to then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who decided to send a female elephant named Indira as a gift. Indira arrived at Tokyo’s Shibaura district from India by ship on Sept. 25, 1949, and walked the 9-kilometer distance from the district to Ueno Zoo during the night. Crowds lined the elephant’s route, and about 10,000 people gathered at the Ueno Zoo gate before opening time. After the zoo opened, so many visitors flocked to the elephant house that some could not get close enough even for a glimpse. Then Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida, 300 elementary school children and nearly 40,000 visitors attended a ceremony for the elephant’s arrival held at a later date. In a message sent to the ceremony, Nehru said that Indira should be considered a messenger of love and friendship from the children of India. The metropolitan government soon organized a traveling zoo so that children around the country could see the elephant. Indira, along with other animals such as baboons and peacocks, toured cities including Shizuoka in central Japan and Sapporo in northern Japan by freight train, and was warmly received everywhere she went. Indira was beloved as a symbol of Japan-India friendship until her death at age 49 in 1983. In 1966, when India was experiencing a major famine and food shortages, a group of people from Tokyo’s Taito Ward, where Ueno Zoo is located, raised 3.43 million yen in donations to India, to return the kindness shown through the gifting of Indira. Perfect Testing Ground for Japan’s 1st Monorail Ueno Zoo hosted Japan’s first monorail authorized under what is now the railway business law. The monorail line, which was only 330 meters in length, carried a total of 65 million passengers before it was discontinued in 2023 due to its aging infrastructure. The line opened in 1957, around the start of Japan’s era of high economic growth. The government said in its economic white paper the previous year that the country was no longer in the postwar period. At the time, the metropolitan government was considering new transportation methods, because streetcars, which were a key mode of transport, were expected to be phased out due to growing automobile use. The monorail emerged as an option, and it selected Ueno Zoo as a test site because it offered curves, elevation changes and a steady flow of visitors. The metropolitan government’s Bureau of Transportation said that the zoo’s monorail, which served for 66 years before being discontinued, fulfilled its mission as an experimental line through numerous trials and studies. The insights gained through the test monorail line paved the way for the construction and operation of the Tokyo Monorail, which began service in 1964 between Hamamatsucho Station and the Japanese capital’s Haneda Airport. The metropolitan government plans to complete design work for new vehicles and stations for a replacement for the Ueno Zoo monorail during the current fiscal year. Panda Craze Brings Riot Police Ueno Zoo’s most popular attraction, the giant panda, first arrived on Oct. 28, 1972. China gifted two pandas, Lan Lan and Kang Kang, to Japan to commemorate the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two Asian neighbors. Ueno Zoo was only asked by the Japanese government to accept the pandas about three weeks before their arrival. Faced with the sudden request, the zoo rushed to set up a quarantine system and worked day and night to renovate facilities. One major challenge was procuring bamboo to feed the pandas. To secure more than 20 kilograms per day, zookeepers searched for suppliers not only in Tokyo but also in nearby prefectures such as Tochigi and Chiba. Japan was swept with panda fever after Lan Lan and Kang Kang arrived. A massive crowd formed before the gates opened on the first day of their public viewing, and lines to see the pandas stretched about 2 km. Five riot police units were dispatched to maintain order as many people packed in front of the panda enclosure. Startled by the excitement, the two pandas ran around and began frothing at the mouth, forcing zookeepers to shorten viewing times. This led to the practice of limiting viewing hours and giving pandas regular rest days. Ueno Zoo saw a hike in visitors thanks to the panda craze. The number of visitors grew by 1 million from the year before to 5.01 million in fiscal 1972 and by an even bigger 2.3 million to 7.37 million in fiscal 1973. In fiscal 1974, the tally marked a record of 7.65 million. Animals can serve as symbols of international goodwill, such as China’s pandas and India’s elephant. “Japan has also sent animals overseas, and they can help deepen bilateral ties,” said Mikako Kaneko, the zoo’s deputy head. “Such exchanges are only possible in times of peace.” Disaster, COVID-19 Force Closures On March 11, 2011, a huge earthquake off the coast of northeastern Japan triggered shaking in central Tokyo that registered a seismic intensity of upper 5, the fourth-highest level on the 10-point Japanese scale. While Ueno Zoo and its animals did not suffer major damage, the zoo was closed to the public from March 17 that year to cooperate with efforts to deal with electricity shortages caused by the disaster. The first public viewing of Ri Ri and Shin Shin, which came to the zoo the month before, was postponed from its scheduled date of March 22. Ueno Zoo reopened about two weeks later with shorter hours and offered free admission to those affected by the March 11 quake and tsunami for 10 days. Lines of over 2,000 people formed at the zoo gate before opening hours, because it was the first time since Ling Ling died in 2008 that a giant panda had been shown to the public at the zoo. “I strongly felt how much people had been waiting for the zoo to reopen,” Kaneko recalled. “Many people suffered horrible experiences and were feeling down after the disaster,” she went on. “Seeing families smile and enjoy themselves, I felt that the zoo is a place that can make people forget about their hardships and lift their spirits.” The COVID-19 pandemic prompted Ueno Zoo to close three times for a total of 346 days. The zoo was closed for 160 consecutive days between December 2020 and June 2021, longer than the 101 days the zoo was closed following the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake in Tokyo and surrounding areas. Kaneko said that, while the zoo was closed, zookeepers continued taking care of the animals, moving them outdoors during the day and indoors at night. “We kept the animals’ daily lives the same as usual, as their enclosures would become messy if they stayed in the same place,” she said of the animals’ routines. “They may have been surprised by the quiet of having no visitors.” “Zoo Is Peace” Tadamichi Koga, the former Ueno Zoo director who led the zoo’s postwar recovery, held dear his phrase “The zoo is the peace.” “As someone who experienced military service and the wartime culling of animals, Koga must have felt firsthand that zoos can only exist in times of peace,” Kaneko said. “I believe he sought to achieve peace by creating a zoo where visitors can enjoy and learn.” Kaneko said she hopes the zoo will “continue being a place that teaches the value of biodiversity” as it approaches 145 years since its establishment in 2027. “There are countless creatures on Earth, all influencing one another and maintaining the balance of ecosystems,” she went on. “If humans disturb that balance by prioritizing profit or comfort, the negative effects will come back to bite us, and we could eventually perish. The zoo is a place where people can learn the importance of this.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]