Around 50 years ago, India presented Japan with an elephant as a gesture of friendship after most zoo animals in Japan were lost due to World War II. Now a movement has begun to return this kindness to Croatia, a country that has been devastated by warfare. A Japanese photojournalist and his supporters are heading a campaign to present elephants to a Croatian zoo.

The campaign has its roots in a 1993 visit by photojournalist Eiji Tajima to Osijek City Zoo, which was completely wasted by the war. Five years later, Tajima and blind origami artist Saburo Kase held an origami exhibition at the zoo to commemorate its reopening. At that time, they learned that an elephant named Suzie that had been sent to Hungary during wartime was too old to return. She was sent abroad because officials were worried that she may be hurt by shelling or run into the streets and injure people. The government didn't have the money for a new elephant, and so Croatian children have been left wondering "When is Suzie coming back?"

Tajima collected 4,000 signatures of Osijek residents and 300 drawings by local children to try to find someone who would donate an elephant. The task wasn't easy, since the elephant is a rare animal. He traveled to zoos and safari parks in Germany, Indonesia, Thailand, and other countries whenever he learned of a baby elephant born in captivity, bringing along the pictures drawn by Croatian children.

His efforts were frustrated by political and other factors, but in 1999 a group of people in Japan joined together to support this initiative, gathering news and collecting donations. Some people pitched in because they wanted to return the kindness they were shown 50 years ago.

Elephants, lions, and other wildlife were killed during the war in Japan, much the same as in Croatia. Soon after the country's defeat, hordes of children flocked to Nagoya's Higashiyama Zoo by train to see the nation's only surviving elephant. Kids in Tokyo who couldn't afford the train ride requested that an elephant be restored to a zoo closer by. This wish was fulfilled in 1949, when Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru donated an elephant to the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo.

Suzie was a symbol of peace for the Osijek people. "I have to find an elephant for Osijek children so they can learn to trust people again. It will be an enduring symbol of friendship, just like the elephant donated by India 50 years ago," says Tajima.

Contributions have now reached about 3 million yen (approximately 24,000 dollars, or 26,000 euros). The group plans to collect 25 million yen (200,000 dollars, or 220,000 euros) so that two baby elephants can be presented to Osijek by the spring of 2002.

An official of the Osijek City Zoo was in Tokyo in March to make an appeal for the campaign. "Suzie won't be coming back," she said at a ceremony in Asakusa--near the Ueno Zoo--on March 4. "But I hope, with your help, we can give the children a new elephant." She will be taking home drawings of elephants made by preschoolers in Tokyo for kids in her native country who have never seen the animal.

"I hope children in Croatia get to see an elephant soon," said a youngster attending the ceremony in Asakusa.

Photos: (top) Croatian children's drawing of an elephant that was given to Tajima; (above) Croatian elementary school students draw pictures of elephants. (Eiji Tajima)