OUR COLLECTIVE FEAR OF THE NUCLEAR, OR WHAT EXACTY IS GODZILLA?
By Francisco Gonzalez
To the majority of people who are going
to see Gareth Edward’s Godzilla (2014), the idea they have of
Godzilla is a very general one. All they see is a monster movie. To
them Godzilla is just this giant monster that goes around stepping on
people and destroying buildings while shooting laser beams from its
mouth. But in reality, Godzilla is so much more than that! So here my
friends I offer you a small explanation of where Godzilla comes from,
and what he really means, metaphorically speaking of course. First
off, it’s important to mention that Godzilla is one of the longest
running franchises in cinema. I mean, Godzilla is like James Bond or
Dracula, characters that are so iconic that they will never die.
Godzilla is an iconic behemoth that will live on forever! So far
Godzilla has been in 28 Japanese films produced by Toho Co. Ltd!
There are two American Godzilla films and countless videogames and
comic books. Godzilla coming back film after film makes sense when we
take in consideration that practically nothing can kill Godzilla!
Just ask the Japanese army, they’ve tried everything and nothing
gets through Godzilla’s indestructible skin. |
| Shooting Godzilla's destruction in GODZILLA (1984) |
Godzilla always comes out of the ocean
and by the end of the movie he will most likely go back into it. He
is sometimes portrayed as a God punishing humanity for abusing the
planet. In other films, Godzilla appears as earth’s protector, like
in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995) where Godzilla protects humanity
from Destoroyah, one of the most powerful monsters to ever walk the
face of the earth. Be it punisher or protector, Godzilla is an
unstoppable force of nature. But where did the idea of Godzilla come
from? Well, Godzilla’s birth as a character can be traced all the
way back to the many nuclear weapons tests that the United States
conducted during the 40’s and 50’s, but primarily to the nuclear
attack upon Nagasaki and Hiroshima, an event that for obvious reasons
left a profound scar on the psyche of the Japanese nation.
Once upon a time, the United States was
all about nuclear weapons. For a while there, all they wanted to do
was test their nuclear capabilities, to see just how much destruction
they could inflict on any given enemy. Their ultimate goal with these
tests was to know the effectiveness and explosive capabilities of
these bombs before using them against Japan during World War II. But
even after World War II (and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki)
the tests continued and so the U.S. tested their atomic bombs on
their own turf, igniting atomic bombs in places like New Mexico and
Nevada. Other times, they would test these bombs out in the Pacific
Ocean, near the Marshall Islands, where they actually managed to
tests 67 nuclear weapons!
All this testing yielded valuable
knowledge and information to scientists and the American military,
but it caused irreparable damage on many islands and territories;
with health effects lingering on the affected population. In other
words, if you lived anywhere near the places where these tests were
conducted, chances are you’d start suffering from exposure to
radioactive fallout. This happened to the residents of Bikini Atoll
in The Marshall Islands. The residents of these islands suffered
horrible health effects because of exposure to radioactive fallout,
the U.S. simply hurled money their way as a way to repay them for
their troubles. But what’s a couple of million worth when two weeks
later your dick falls off? Right? Sadly, nuclear weapons testing
continued! For example, on March 1, 1954, United Sates conducted a
nuclear test called ‘Castle Bravo’ which just so happens is the
biggest nuclear explosion ever detonated by the United States! This
test yielded an explosion far greater than they expected, and so the
aftermath was worse than they had imagined. Radioactive fallout
spread throughout the world, it affected residents of nearby islands
and killed one crew member belonging to the Japanese fishing boat
named Lucky Dragon #5.
My point being that nuclear testing has
been something of a concern for Japanese people, especially when we
take in consideration the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. When we
look at it, the Japanese people are a nation psychologically affected
by nuclear weapons and why wouldn’t they be. I mean, these
detonations yielded thousands of deaths in one swoop. The fear of
nuclear weapons reflected itself in Japanese popular culture
especially in Japanese films, and still does to this day. One example
is Akira (1988), a film that takes place within a society affected by
a nuclear attack that took place during ‘World War III’. Another
film to directly reflect a society traumatized by nuclear weapons
would be the animated film Grave of the Fireflies (1988), one of the
best films on the subject, I highly recommend checking that film out,
it’s a very emotional experience. Hell, even films from other
countries addressed these horrifying events, like the French film
Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) a film about an actress making a film
about the whole Hiroshima incident, while there she falls in love
with a Japanese man; together they muse about love, life and war. In
that film the city of Hiroshima is a character on itself, a survivor
of the horror. But, one of the best examples is without a doubt
Ishiro Honda’s Gojira (1954), the first Godzilla film ever made.
This film was a direct response to all these nuclear worries. 
There are various interpretations for
Godzilla, but without a shred of a doubt, he is a metaphor for
nuclear weapons; other interpretations say that it represents the
United States themselves. Whatever the case, Godzilla is something to
be feared and be horrified by. Actually, that first black and white
Godzilla film functions as a horror film, something that clashes with
the more childish sequels that followed. If we look at Godzilla
closely, we can see just how much of a metaphor for nuclear weapons
he is. For example, Godzilla’s scaly skin was designed to mimic the
keloid scars seen on survivors of Hiroshima. Godzilla’s origins
have varied depending on the film, but in general, he is an ancient
prehistoric sea monster that is awakened by nuclear radiation, so
Godzilla is actually a mutation. I would say that the biggest
allusion to Godzilla’s nuclear origins would be his ‘atomic
breath’, a nuclear blast that comes out of Godzilla’s mouth that
is sometimes blue, sometimes red, depending on the movie. Many of the
films allude to this nuclear connection, but the biggest one for me
is in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995) a film in which Godzilla becomes
a threat to humanity because it’s about to have a nuclear sized
heart attack that could wipe out most of Japan. As you can see, if we
connect the dots, we know exactly what Godzilla represents. There was
an attempt to get all countries to sign the ‘Comprehensive Test Ban
Treaty’ of 1996, but alas, eight countries have not signed it, so
it is not in effect yet and so nuclear testing still continues to
happen throughout the world, the most recent tests conducted by North
Korea. So now Godzilla is not just a symbol of the Japanese’s fear
of Nuclear weapons, it represents a fear we all share, the fear of
madmen, ready to press that button and wiping us all from the face of
the planet.
***
Francisco Gonzalez has been running The Film Connoisseur for more than six years. The Film Connoisseur is a film blog filled with articles, lists and reviews on everything from the classiest art house films, to the cheesiest B-movies. It's an all-encompassing film blog. Francisco is also the writer and illustrator of Killer Comics' Macabro, an anthology comic book dedicated to science fiction and horror stories. He's also a self-taught filmmaker, having written, produced and directed a series of zombie comedies: CANNABIS CANNIBALS (2008) and its sequel, CANNABIS CANNIBAL EXODUS (2009). Francisco plans to shoot the third film in the series, CANNABIS CANNIBAL FOREVER, in the summer of 2014.
