The first T-Shirt is designed according to the idea of protection in Elephant Run. During the Second World War, the Imperial Japanese Army invades Burma, a small British colony located in Southeast Asia. Nick Freestone, the protagonist has recently immigrated to Burma to live on his father’s plantation away from the German air raids in London, England after his own apartment was bombed. Soon after Nick’s arrival, however, the Japanese invade, and capture the Freestone plantation, forcing “[a]ll able-bodied men and boys to work on the airfield.” (130) The Japanese and their ruthlessness are symbolized by the red colour surrounding the images on the shirt, symbolizing their controlling nature over the Burmese people, especially when “they were
