Popular Culture Review Vol. 12, No. 2, August 2001 | Page 42
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Popular Culture Review
and Nagasaki; for example, the scenes of the devastation of Tokyo after Godzilla’s
assault are clearly modeled after scenes of Hiroshima, with rows of bodies on the
floor, partially bandaged and burned, and doctors examining children with Geiger
counters. Japanese audiences in 1954 would have immediately recognized these
references, and this is precisely the meaning the film’s director, Ishiro Honda,
meant to convey. Honda had visited Hiroshima in 1946 and his experience wit
nessing the aftermath of the atomic bomb became the inspiration for the film:
“The number one question concerning [Gojira] was the fear connected to what
was then known as the atomic bomb . . . . [W]hen I returned from the war and
passed through Hiroshima, there was a heavy atmosphere—a fear that the Earth
was already coming to an end. That became my basis” (46).
The similarities and differences between the narratives and the cultural
contexts of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and Gojira thus reveal the paradox of
the Godzilla phenomenon: from its original inception, Godzilla represented an
infatuation with and an imitation of American culture, while at the same time it
also represented Japan’s victimization by and hostility toward America. And
Godzilla films have a contradictory relationship not only to America, but also to
Japan itself. In the 23 sequels made since 1954, Godzilla has gone back and forth
from villain to hero, from a symbol of American colonization to a symbol of Japan’s
sovereignty; sometimes he is neither one nor the other but rather something in
between, what McConnell calls “a half-dream of vengeance coupled with a truly
terrifying sense of self-annihilation” (119). And despite its message of peace, Kenji
Sato points out that the original film’s success was largely due to its violence:
“Most of the anti-war films were anti-aggression and anti-violence, but because
Godzilla was not completely serious, it was actually more successful in exploring
Japanese fears of war and destruction. There’s a sort of morbid fascination with
the destruction in those movies” (qtd. in Stemgold 5).
While the violent elements of the original film have endured in its se
quels, the anti-war message has not, and by the end of the ‘60s, reviewers were
complaining that the premise of the Godzilla series “appeared to have run out of
steam . . . awaiting another ‘issue’ to take over from the nuclear war/U.S. occupa
tion concerns” (Hardy 286). Toho attempted to give new relevance to Godzilla by
casting him as the champion of environmentalism in Godzilla vs. the Smog Mon
ster (1979). The theme of nuclear war eventually returned in Gojira (1984), when,
after a hiatus of seven years, Toho attempted to remake the original 1954 film
within the context o f ‘80s cold war politics, but in subsequent films, such as Godzilla
vs. King Ghidora (1991), the cold war message disappears again and Godzilla is
transformed into a protector against economic competition; the issues these films
address are thus constantly adapti