Gojira: Notes and Comments

A variety of thoughts (with more to come perhaps).

What the Japanese audience in 1954 brought to the film:

1.  Memories of the war, especially of the fire-bombing of Tokyo in March 1945.  Over 100,000 people (including an aunt of mine) died in the bombing raids, which consisted mainly of incendiary bombs which were particularly effective given that most Japanese buildings were made of wood and paper.  There were many more bombing raids, of course, and large numbers of the population were accustomed to evacuations from their homes, hiding in bomb shelters, and indiscriminate bombing of civilian (noncombatant) populations.
2.  Memories or awareness of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

3.  Experience of the U.S. Occupation, which ended in 1952 (two years before the release of the movie).  Newly freed from American control, the Japanese government sought to demonstrate its power by building up "self-defense forces," since Article Nine of the (U.S.-written) constitution prohibited the waging of war.

4.  Awareness of the "Lucky Dragon No. 5" incident: A Japanese fishing boat, named the "Lucky Dragon No. 5," strayed too close to an H-Bomb test in the South Pacific.  The fishermen were exposed to high doses of radiation.

5.  H-Bomb testing in general, something that many Japanese hated, considering what had happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Some reflections on the film and the beast (kaiju):

1.  Gojira is a weird hybrid of the prehistoric (Jurassic-era dinosaur) and the modern (radiation from H-Bomb testing).  This should raise questions about just how "progressive" human beings are.

2.  Gojira acts without motivation or thought, or anything resembling strategy.  It destroys Tokyo indiscriminately.  This destruction of Tokyo should evoke thoughts about how the Americans destroyed Tokyo.  Although the Americans had a "strategy," in another sense was the bombing also associated with an atavistic (primitive) tendency to destroy?

3.  In 1954, Japan had tens of thousands of American soldiers based there, including at bases very close to Tokyo.  But the Japanese government doesn't ask the Americans for help in fighting Gojira.  Why?  Does this aspect of the film strengthen the interpretation of the film as an allegory of the Pacific War?

4.  How could the Japanese audience watch Tokyo destroyed again?  How could it watch a film depicting mass slaughter and casualties?  What was it like to watch a mother huddled with her children and telling them that they were going to join Daddy (in the afterlife, presumably)?  Was there something cathartic about watching this destruction?  In particular, it is noteworthy that Gojira was destroying the reconstructed Tokyo that had been so celebrated just the year before in "Tokyo Story."  (Note that Gojira destroys the Wako Building, the jewelry store with the famous clocktower, located where the bus tour had ended.)

5.  Considering the war crimes and atrocities committed by the Japanese during the Pacific War, was it an act of bad faith to focus on Japan's victimization?