Godzilla and Japan's Nuclear Disaster Films - NYTimes

8/3/2019 Godzilla and Japan's Nuclear Disaster Films - NYTimes

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March 14, 2011, 5:21 pm

Japans Long Nuclear Disaster Film

'Godzilla' and Japan's Nuclear Disaster Films - NYTimes.com http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/japans-long...

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By PETER WYNN KIRBY

Crisis Points gathers personal accounts of moments of turmoil around the world.

Tags:

Disasters and Emergencies, Japan, Movies, nuclear power

OXFORD, England Peering at the post-tsunami devastation in Japan on miniature YouTube windows or video-

streaming displays from Japanese news outlets provokes not only great empathy and concern, but an unmistakable

feeling of dj vu. As a scholar focusing on the place of nuclear energy in Japanese culture, Ive seen more than

my share of nuclear-themed monster movies from the 50s onward, and the scenes of burning refineries, flattened

cities, mobilized rescue teams and fleeing civilians recall some surreal highlights of the Japanese disaster film

genre.

This B-movie fare is widely mocked, often for good reason. But the early Godzilla films were earnest and

hard-hitting. They were stridently anti-nuclear: the monster emerged after an atomic explosion. They were also

anti-war in a country coming to grips with the consequences of World War II. As the great saurian beast emergesfrom Tokyo Bay to lay waste to the capital in 1954s Gojira (Godzilla), the resulting explosions, dead bodies

and flood of refugees evoked dire scenes from the final days of the war, images still seared in the memories of

Japanese viewers. Far from the heavily edited and jingoistic, shootem-up, stompem-down flick that moviegoers

saw in the United States, Japanese audiences reportedly watched Gojira in somber silence, broken by periodic

weeping.

Associated Press/Toho Co. Ltd.A scene from

the original Godzilla, a film inspired by the testing of an American hydrogen bomb at Bikini Atoll.

Yet it is the films anti-nuclear message that seems most discordant in present-day Japan, where nearly a third ofthe nations electricity is generated by nuclear power. The film was inspired by events that were very real and very

controversial. In March 1954, a massive thermonuclear weapon tested by the United States near Bikini Atoll in

the Pacific, codenamed Bravo, detonated with about 2.5 times greater force than anticipated. The unexpectedly

vast fallout from the bomb enveloped a distant Japanese tuna trawler named the Lucky Dragon No. 5 in a blizzard

of radioactive ash. Crewmembers returned to their home port of Yaizu bearing blackened and blistered skin, acute

radiation sickness and a cargo of irradiated tuna. Newspapers reported on the radioactive traces left by the mens

bodies as they wandered the city, as well as atomic tuna found in fish markets in Osaka and later at Japans

famed Tsukiji Market in Tokyo. The exalted Emperor Hirohito himself was said to have eliminated seafood from

his diet.

In a nation fixated on purity, the revulsion against this second nuclear contamination of the homeland was

visceral. In late September 1954, the Lucky Dragons radio operator Aikichi Kuboyama died. Gojira appearedin cinemas the following month, breaking the record for opening-day receipts in Tokyo and becoming one of the


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top-grossing films of the year. During the same month, there was an upsurge in anti-nuclear petitions in response

to Kuboyamas death, and the peace movement went national.

Audiences who flocked to Gojira were clearly watching more than just a monster movie. The films opening

scenes evoked the nuclear explosion in the Pacific and the damaged Japanese bodies so poignant to domestic

viewers. Godzilla relentless, vengeful, sinister looms as an overt symbol of science run amok. The

creatures every footstep and tail-swipe lay bare the shaky foundations on which Japans postwar prosperity stood.

The great reptilian menace onscreen actually a man in a 200-pound lizard suit stomping through miniaturizedversions of Tokyo neighborhoods illustrated both Japans aversion to nuclear radiation and its frustrating

impotence in a tense cold war climate.

The bizarre and suggestive menagerie of creatures that followed Godzilla onto the silver screen ranged from the

intriguing to the ridiculous. Two pterodactyl-like monsters, both named Rodan, wreak havoc on Japan after being

disturbed underground by Japanese mining operations. Mothra, the giant, pied moth-god of Infant Island a

fictional nuclear testing ground in the South Pacific unleashes devastation on Japan in one film and actually

gets the better of Godzilla in an epic smackdown in another. Other monsters include Gamera, a giant turtle, and

the absurd Varan the Unbelievable, a large reptile resembling a flying squirrel. In all the films, Japanese

populations alternately mobilize against and cower from the threats that wash up, or lumber onto, Japans shores.

Related in Crisis Points

Echoes of 1923

An Unpredictable Test of Japans Resilience

The Internet Kept Me Company

Search for Solid Ground

If there is any thread running through this sprawling bestiary of monster films, it is the profound vulnerability of

Japan, as William Tsutsui writes in his acclaimed book Godzilla on My Mind. Japan, relatively powerless in

the cold war arena in reality, is able in a fictional world to muster its heavily armed and impressively disciplined

Self-Defense Forces to fight against, or occasionally delay or redirect, the colossal rampaging of outlandish

threats.

But the films also clearly depict a human population that is, again and again, boxing above its weight class. Over

time, Godzilla morphs into a defender of Japan, but dangers begin to materialize within the nation itself. For

example, in addition to the lost moral compass of Japanese developers and other businessmen critiqued in several

films, works like Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster (1971) gave voice to popular opposition against toxic pollution

from Japanese industry and rapacious development that had notoriously poisoned Japanese bodies and defiled the

nations once-famed Green Archipelago in a series of environmental debacles worthy of their own horror movie

marathon.

If the monster-film genre is less ubiquitous than it once was, the themes it reflected are no less present today,

particularly in the 24-hour blanket coverage of last weeks earthquakes and tsunami. It shows a Japan that remains

visibly beset by large-scale threats that strike without warning. Japans emergency response teams rescue citizensstranded amid once-thriving cities I have visited in years past that are now little more than sludge and debris.

Cars, trucks, trains and large ships lie swept into piles ashore or float in murky water like misshapen bath toys.

Buildings implode and fires rage as if ignited by a burst of radioactive breath or a flick of a great creatures tail.

But it also brings back into focus Japans awkward postwar nuclear predicament that was ambiguously illustrated

by the Godzilla series. Japan now has 54 nuclear reactors, ranking third in terms of energy output behind the

United States and France. Japan also has an unusually shoddy record for nuclear safety. The long string of

occasionally fatal nuclear mismanagement lapses over the past few decades in a nation famed worldwide for

manufacturing quality control and high-tech achievement is troubling and almost incomprehensible, to say the

least. Part of this story is distinctly Japanese, as lack of transparency, insufficient inspection regimes and a

sometimes paralyzing inability to make imperfect but practical decisions can leave an industry vulnerable to the

sort of dangerous situations that confront the Fukushima reactors.


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Previous Post In Deadly Earthquake, Echoes of 1923 By JOSHUA HAMMER

Next Post Sos Your Old Man By STANLEY FISH

What is different this time, however, is that we dont need a disaster film to bring out the nuclear contradictions of

Japanese society. The tsunami was but one clear counterargument to the claim that nuclear power is a safe

solution to climate change and dwindling oil supplies. As our thoughts remain focused on the plight of tens of

thousands of people in harms way, Japans flawed nuclear record can help shed revealing light on nuclear power

plans in other nations, including the United States, that have to succeed in the real world instead of in a

far-fetched film plot.

Peter Wynn Kirby is a researcher with the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at Oxford and a research

ellow at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris. His latest book is Troubled Natures:

Waste, Environment, Japan.

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17 Readers' Comments

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1.

Liberty Lover

NYCMarch 14th, 2011

Twitter

Recommend


4 of 15 3/14/11 8:35 PM


5/15

7:17 pm

The problem is not nuclear power. Implemented and situated properly, it is safe.

The problem, rather, was the decision by Japanese bureaucrats to build boiling-water nuclear reactors (or for that

matter, any sort of nuclear reactors) along a fault line, in an area where tsunamis are inevitable, on one of the most

densely populated islands in the world. That's not a flaw in the technology. It's poor judgment on the parts of

humans.

-LL

Recommend Recommended by 7 Readers

Report as Inappropriate

2.

Chris

New York City

March 14th, 2011

7:17 pm

> The tsunami was but one clear counterargument to the claim that nuclear

> power is a safe solution to climate change and dwindling oil supplies.

A less apocalyptic -- but more accurate -- lesson to draw from this tragedy is that countries shouldn't build nuclear

power plants in areas prone to earthquakes or tsunamis. Another lesson is that backup diesel generators you have

to power the reactor during a power failure should be as carefully protected from the elements as the reactors

themselves.

If EITHER of these precautions had been taken at Fukushima, this disaster would not have happened.



3.

Roy

California

March 14th, 20117:17 pm

You forgot about the teenage mutant ninja turtles, the radioactive ooze caused the mutations, but they ended up

fighting evil and siding with good. So radioactivity can be our friend.

In all seriousness what do you expect from a Japan that has no natural resources but the most industrious people

on the planet? They need electricity to keep their economy going, an economy that has benefited all of us with

high quality and if not cheap anymore but still competitive products? We can't just blame them, we're all to blame;

prosperity is ruining the planet and we don't seem to care, we just want more. The answer? I don't have one. I

want more too.



4.notsteinbeck

California

March 14th, 2011

7:17 pm

I've looked for a concise overview of the Japanese monster-movie genre and how it relates to its national psyche

in the postwar period. This was exactly what I was looking for.



5.

Davidwh

Los Angeles

March 14th, 2011


5 of 15 3/14/11 8:35 PM


6/15

7:18 pm

Sunday night, as we watched a remake of 'Mother Meets Godzilla" we pondered the similar themes that have

existed in Japan since the first foreigners landed upon their island. My sadness for the people of Japan is

profound.



6.

eyerollergrit city, wa

March 14th, 2011

7:18 pm

fascinating. great piece.



7.

MKT

Pasadena CA

March 14th, 2011

7:18 pm

Excellent essay. Two things to add: there was an additional anti-nuclear aspect to the original Godzilla, when a

Japanese scientist had invented a superweapon which others urged him to use against Godzilla, but he refused on

moral grounds. (A pointed contrast to America's decision to use its superweapon in real life.)

And although the anti-nuclear themes of the movie are clear and indisputable, I suspect that some of the scenes of

Japanese citizens fleeing the Godzilla's flaming ravages were inspired as much by the firebombings of B-29s as by

the atomic bombs. The atom bombs killed with a single stupendous blast (plus radiation); the firebombs killed

with a march of flames, as Godzilla did.



8.

Bill BenzonJersey City, NJ

March 14th, 2011

7:18 pm

I second Peter Kirby's observation that the original Japanese Gojira is quite different from and far superior to the

film that was chopped out of it for the American audience. There is a sense of stately ritual at the end that is

utterly missing in the American version and a scene of national mourning (to a large children's choir) that is quite

touching. I urge you to see the film, which has been reissued on DVD. Here's an extended analysis of it which I

wrote a couple of years ago and have just reposted to the web:

http://transitionpartyusa.wordpress.com...


Report as Inappropriate9.

Manolo

Madrid, Spain

March 14th, 2011

7:18 pm

Actually, the current Japanese nuclear crisis reminds me more of AKIRA, by Katsushiro Otomo, the greatest

anime ever done back in the 80s



10.

Bert

Philadelphia


6 of 15 3/14/11 8:35 PM


7/15

March 14th, 2011

7:36 pm

Liberty Lover,

You are right. Nuclear power is perfectly safe if it is place in a location that we know in advace will be

unmolested by earthquake, terrorism, uprising, tornado for the next half century. And that is is make of pure

unobtainium so that the parts never break or wear out unexpectedly. And the sortware that runs it is bug free. And

the operators will never be inattentive, sick, drunk or drugged up, or having sex instead of watching the gauges.

Recommend Recommended by 10 ReadersReport as Inappropriate

11.

EddieZr

Collingswood, NJ

March 14th, 2011

7:50 pm

I've been incorporating Godzilla images into my art and graphics for the last 30 years. It is such a potent icon of

nuclear power's deeply ominous presence in our culture. The potential of nuclear energy as a viable alternative to

fossil fuelswhich of course are essentially formed from dinosaursis the height of irony. I see humor in this

fact, but then again I've never even had second hand exposure to radiation's devastating effects. It takes a certain

mentality to tolerate this kind of irony. I am surprised to find it in the seemingly stoic Japanese character.



12.

Brent

Ontario

March 14th, 2011

8:07 pm

To other commenters: The horrific woes that Japan is suffering at present is an inappropriate time to leap on one's

anti-nuclear-power high horse. Save your polemics for another day.

Mr. Kirby, I know little or nothing about Japan or its post-war angst. But your piece gives me a lot to think about.

The 'atomic mutation' aspect of the Godzilla films makes much more sense now.

Excellent article. Thanks.



13.

Andrew

RI

March 14th, 2011

8:07 pm

There is one scene in both versions of the 1954 original ( a 2 disc DVD set ) where a mother is holding her

children as the fire unleashed by Godzilla is about to engulf them. In the Raymond Burr version, you never know

what she is saying ( unless you speak Japanese )but in "Gojira" you here her tell her children that they will bewith the father soon. I could not help but be reminded of some of the elements of the original in the footage of this

disaster that we are seeing now. MKT also brings out a good point of how the one scientist "Serizawa" sacrifices

himself to not only kill the monster, but to insure that his terrible weapon will not fall into the wrong hands. I

would like to remind others here that the Japanese are not the only ones who build Nuclear power plants in active

seismic regions. We have them in California.



14.

Nici

Melbourne, Australia

March 14th, 2011

8:07 pm


7 of 15 3/14/11 8:35 PM


8/15

I'm surprised this article neglects to mention the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945. Japan's ''long

nuclear distaster film'' has deep origins. Otherwise, very interesting.



15.

aattlee

Boston

March 14th, 20118:07 pm

The history that you describe illustrates the difference between deference and duty.

A purely Confucian appreciation of public policy would place civic duty at the top of the list

of things always to do. A more feudal approach places deference to power at the top

of the list. Well in Japan deferring always to the top power leads to the reign of Tojo or a

radioactive monster, in Germany it led to hitler.



16.

John N

Portland OR

March 14th, 2011

8:07 pm

The Toho non giant monster films are very interesting too. The Mysterians who come from a blown-up former

planet in the asteroid belt only want a little land and to marry Earth women. Gorath , a giant asteroid that will

destroy the Earth . But the Japanese have a plan to save earth. Atragon in which the last Japanese super weapon is

put into play to defeat the Mu Empire. And even something so primitive as Starman or Super Giant a Japanese

Superman has to Defeat The Atomic Rulers of the World-who might they be? And the seldom seen The Last War

in which Japan and the U.S. stand together in World War 3.



17.

robclark57Bainbridge Island, WA

March 14th, 2011

8:07 pm

Last Wednesday I borrowed two movies from our local Library, last year's end-of-the-world movie "2012", which

we watched that night and the disaster-film disaster "Meteor" (starring Sean Connery & Natalie Wood!) which we

watched Thursday night. Friday night we watched the news...



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15 of 15 3/14/11 8:35 PM

Godzilla and Japan's Nuclear Disaster Films - NYTimes

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