August 6th 1945, Air Forces of the United States dropped a 15 Kiloton atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima. This was equivalent to about 15 thousand pounds of TNT, and over a hundred thousand civilian Japanese were killed. Many who didn’t die right away were later on subjected to radiation poisoning, or the brutal flash of the bomb that went off. Buildings came crashing down as well, so the loss of lives escalated.
Hiroshima was the first city in japan to be bombed, while Nagasaki was the city that received the greatest loss. Sadly, there were plans to bomb Japan further. Japan, which was in consort with the soviet union to surrender, was while being pacified under U.S. influence to support bombing them for the second time. And rightfully so, was the post-war U.S. afraid of the new idol which was the USSR, who the world ironically deemed a savior. The atomic bombings are rightfully considered to one of the most gruesome events in human history along the bloody holocaust.
It does go without mention that many films have been made over this, and also tell the story of the atomic bomb.
In this series, I would like to examine how the bombing is integrated into the culture, both from the perspectives of the United States as the perpetrating nation and Japan.
In this particular instance, Steve Martin (Raymond Burr), an American reporter, is being treated for his injuries in a Tokyo hospital and as he lays on the floor of the hospital, dozens of others injured in the same attack tend to him. He begins to recall flashbacks, staring from the moment multiple vessels disappeared off the coast. I even saw some victims who were washed by the tide, and Martin goes there to investigate them. There is a myth of a beast, which the natives call “Godzilla.” They say he is a god of monstrous sea creatures.
The sea motivates Martin to join a group of researchers who discover the island’s radioactive footprints and prehistoric beasts. In the end, there is Godzilla and Jesus in the flesh. And the idea is that if a hydrogen bomb is detonated in the sea, Godzilla will awake and take revenge on humanity. And indeed, Godzilla emerges out of the sea and begins to destroy Tokyo. Because Godzilla was turned into a monster by several hydrogen bomb tests. Scientists also invented a device to deoxygenate the water and remove any life from the surrounding area. Although Godzilla is now dead, several members of the team were injured, which made it impossible for them to activate the device.
You may have observed that I have watched the US version, of the movie dubbed Godzilla, and you are right. I did that for a reason. I wanted to illustrate how Godzilla was designed to serve as a metaphor for the atomic bombing of Japan and how the US sought to Godzilla’s use and localization to US. Gojira, a Japanese film produced by Toho Studios, had its US debut in 1956 but received very little publicity. It was however preceded by the release of King of Monsters which featured a 15-minute verbatim clip of Gojira edited out of it, mainly consisting of scenes that depicted a bomb and the favorable image of the Japanese army. The very same American remake also aided to sustain the narrative that Godzilla was a “cheeseball” idea and followed a more cliché aided direction towards the rest of the movie sci-fi theme.
Western audiences seem to have only been exposed to one part of the Godzilla story, which is his appearance. First and foremost, Godzilla’s face is said to be angered and it portrays the wrath of Japan, which he is said to be as both a keloid scar and a furrowed American skin, which resembles what Godzilla resembles. But at the same time, it also embodies the kind of pseudo strival they were made to face. The bomb didn’t even distinguish between the fascists who were serving the Empire and a normal person who was simply trying to carry on in a broken society. This burning mass of energy can be likened to a powerful explosion that leaves a feeling as if someone has suffered from the greatest form of mass punishment ever.
Hollywood actively worked to erase the political meaning ingrained within the original film. This is one of capitalism’s great political sins, to transform something important concerning on culture by making it fragmented, in order to sell it to the culture which it seeks to critique. Allowing American people to sympathize or be relate to the people their country destroyed would seriously challenge the perspective of “prospers” after the war. Therefore, here we got the sixties and seventies with Godzilla simply turning out to be a cartoon character alongside a baby one. The direct connection to the nuclear bomb that made one think about the possibility of destruction has been severed with later Western versions.
In this 1998 remake by Roland, Godzilla is French bombed without guilt from the testers, which gives the American protagonists a hero status. They are, after all, the victims, so is Tokyo in the original film. Godzilla is nothing then, merely another meaningless incarnation of the destruction pornography of Emmerich’s Independence Day.
In the earliest version of the film Monster, Godzilla was born out of nuclear destruction instead of being revived from his slumber and even the American Massacre theory is erased. In such a case where Godzilla was in fact birthed by the bomb, it would only make sense to incorporate Raymond Burr into the movie after erasing all Japanese who were a part of Godzilla. With the American occupation barrier, it is only apparent that American insecurities would be disregarded. Godzilla was an attempted to be a detailed horror movie however the end goal was distinctly misguided.
Witnessing Hiroshima dissolving into a pile of rubble would send chills down anyone’s spine. The incredibly scant reverberations of American atom bomb raids on Japanese civilians would also find its place in most inhumane acts ever conducted in a civilizational context. The aftermath and the reasons leading to such heinous acts can be blamed on Kennedy style racism and excessive zealousness. America second war with Japan concluded Japan reaching out to America for an unconditional peace treaty omitting all past grievances. The standpoint allowed America to substitute terrorism with god.
Universally, Godzilla stands as a goofball pop culture icon and even the Japanese enjoyed it for a while.
Godzilla Minus One is the one that we are saving for the end but rest assured, it won’t be the last we see of Godzilla in this series. Until then, let us try to wrap our heads around this event through the eyes of a vast array of artists all conceptualizing how do we repent for the sins our government committed as well as those that were inflicted over the Japanese people.
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