ORIGINS OF GODZILLA
The movie that started it all, Godzilla, or Gojira as it was originally called, was directed by Ishiro Honda and was released theatrically in Japan on November 3, 1954. Godzilla, the world-famous monster that has become an icon of sorts, at least in the world of monsters, is a fairly new monster. When compared with the existence of vampires, werewolves, and ghosts, Godzilla, the giant, bulky, aquatic creature has only existed for a fraction of that time.
However, as the years went by, Godzilla, along with its film franchise that settled in both American and Japanese cultures, became a hit. Not only did it make its way into the film industry, but it also made an impact in pop culture, which is discussed in Influence on Pop Culture. We know about the impact Godzilla has had on the world since its release, but how did this creature come to be? As we will see, there is actually a very complicated and tragic, at times, story behind this entertaining monster movie.
WWII AND NUCLEAR TESTING:
As you may have learned in your high school history class, Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan after Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941), when hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. This declaration of war against Japan thrust the US into World War II. Over the course of the war, the US conducted numerous air raids on Japan, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people and destroying many major cities, thus causing a drastic decline in their economy. However, it was in 1947 when the US carried out two of the deadliest attacks in human history (Anderson 16).
However, as the years went by, Godzilla, along with its film franchise that settled in both American and Japanese cultures, became a hit. Not only did it make its way into the film industry, but it also made an impact in pop culture, which is discussed in Influence on Pop Culture. We know about the impact Godzilla has had on the world since its release, but how did this creature come to be? As we will see, there is actually a very complicated and tragic, at times, story behind this entertaining monster movie.
WWII AND NUCLEAR TESTING:
As you may have learned in your high school history class, Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan after Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941), when hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. This declaration of war against Japan thrust the US into World War II. Over the course of the war, the US conducted numerous air raids on Japan, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people and destroying many major cities, thus causing a drastic decline in their economy. However, it was in 1947 when the US carried out two of the deadliest attacks in human history (Anderson 16).
Beforehand, the US gave Japan an ultimatum: if they did not surrender, they would suffer prompt and utter destruction. Japan thought this was a bluff so the US, on the morning of August 6, 1945, deployed the atomic bomb “Little Boy” on the city of Hiroshima, instantly killing around 70,000 people. With Japan still refusing to surrender, the US deployed another atomic bomb called “Fat Man” on the city of Nagasaki three days later, immediately killing another 60,000 people. Over the course of the next several years, radiation poisoning and other long-term nuclear related effects and injuries increased the total casualties to around 200,000 people. Japan could not take any more destruction, so they surrendered on September 2, 1945, officially ending WWII (Noriega 70).
During a 1944 anti-Japanese air raid, the US conquered the territory of Marshall Islands (2800 miles SE off the coast of Japan) and eventually turned it into the main testing ground for nuclear weapons. Although the war was now over, the US still used these islands for testing, so the general public was told to keep away from the islands and the surrounding areas. Their reasons for this were kept confidential until the Lucky Dragon tragedy in early 1954, which sparked worldwide controversy (Brougher 13).
During a 1944 anti-Japanese air raid, the US conquered the territory of Marshall Islands (2800 miles SE off the coast of Japan) and eventually turned it into the main testing ground for nuclear weapons. Although the war was now over, the US still used these islands for testing, so the general public was told to keep away from the islands and the surrounding areas. Their reasons for this were kept confidential until the Lucky Dragon tragedy in early 1954, which sparked worldwide controversy (Brougher 13).
On March 1, 1954, a small tuna fishing boat called the Lucky Dragon Number Five, carrying 23 crew members, witnessed the US’s most powerful weapon to date: a 15-megaton thermonuclear hydrogen bomb code named “Castle Bravo.” This bomb was three times more powerful than experts predicted, which greatly expanded the dangerous radioactive boundaries, which the boat was unfortunately in.
While making their trip back to Japan, the crew members of the Lucky Dragon saw the horizon light up in flames and several minutes later, heard a deafening explosion coming from the direction of the island on which the bomb was detonated. Not long after the explosion, their boat was covered in a mysterious grayish white dust so thick that they were able to scoop it up with their hands and throw it overboard. The dust on board their boat turned out to be ash and debris from the bomb, heavily contaminated with dangerous levels of radiation. By the time the boat returned back to Japan, the crew was already feeling the effects of radiation poisoning, and after seven months of agony, the first crew member succumbed to the radiation and died (Brougher 14).
While making their trip back to Japan, the crew members of the Lucky Dragon saw the horizon light up in flames and several minutes later, heard a deafening explosion coming from the direction of the island on which the bomb was detonated. Not long after the explosion, their boat was covered in a mysterious grayish white dust so thick that they were able to scoop it up with their hands and throw it overboard. The dust on board their boat turned out to be ash and debris from the bomb, heavily contaminated with dangerous levels of radiation. By the time the boat returned back to Japan, the crew was already feeling the effects of radiation poisoning, and after seven months of agony, the first crew member succumbed to the radiation and died (Brougher 14).
IDEA OF GODZILLA:
The Lucky Dragon tragedy sparked an activist movement against the further development of nuclear technology that began in Japan, but would soon spread around the world. The US was afraid that this anti-nuclear movement would turn anti-American, so they donated $2 million to the surviving crew members of the Lucky Dragon. Speaking of the boat, it was found that the dust that coated the boat and its crew was the most harmful part of the explosion. This dust was coined the term “Fallout” and it sprung up a worldwide paranoia about radiation poisoning. These elevating fears of “Fallout” and nuclear war began influencing pop culture: in the 1950’s, there was a growing popularity of science fiction and monster movies that focused on atomic technology and radiation exposure, one of which is Godzilla (Brougher 17).
In early 1954, producer Tomoyuki Tanaka’s project of a film collaboration between Japan and Indonesia fell through, and it was up to him to come up with a new idea to fill the Toho Studio’s empty slot. It was around this time that the Lucky Dragon boat had been ravaged by hydrogen bomb testing. So, on the plane ride back from Indonesia while flying over the Marshall Islands and reflecting over the story of the tuna fishing boat, Tanaka came up with the idea for a monster movie. Before their first monster movie, Toho Studios stuck to making war and action drama movies. However, in Japan, there was a law put in place after the war that banned the production of war films in Japan. Because of this, Toho Studios was looking for any new idea to stay in business (Pike 4).
The Lucky Dragon tragedy sparked an activist movement against the further development of nuclear technology that began in Japan, but would soon spread around the world. The US was afraid that this anti-nuclear movement would turn anti-American, so they donated $2 million to the surviving crew members of the Lucky Dragon. Speaking of the boat, it was found that the dust that coated the boat and its crew was the most harmful part of the explosion. This dust was coined the term “Fallout” and it sprung up a worldwide paranoia about radiation poisoning. These elevating fears of “Fallout” and nuclear war began influencing pop culture: in the 1950’s, there was a growing popularity of science fiction and monster movies that focused on atomic technology and radiation exposure, one of which is Godzilla (Brougher 17).
In early 1954, producer Tomoyuki Tanaka’s project of a film collaboration between Japan and Indonesia fell through, and it was up to him to come up with a new idea to fill the Toho Studio’s empty slot. It was around this time that the Lucky Dragon boat had been ravaged by hydrogen bomb testing. So, on the plane ride back from Indonesia while flying over the Marshall Islands and reflecting over the story of the tuna fishing boat, Tanaka came up with the idea for a monster movie. Before their first monster movie, Toho Studios stuck to making war and action drama movies. However, in Japan, there was a law put in place after the war that banned the production of war films in Japan. Because of this, Toho Studios was looking for any new idea to stay in business (Pike 4).
Ishiro Honda, the producer, heard of Tanaka’s idea of an atomic monster movie, and his interest was piqued. Tanaka approached Eiji Tsuburaya, head of Toho’s visual effects departments, to see how expensive it would be and how long it would take to produce a film of this caliber. Tsuburaya first fell in love with monster movies upon his first viewing of King Kong in the 1930s, and he always dreamed of making a movie just like it ever since. For Godzilla, the budget was limited and the crew only had a few months to complete the film, so Tsuburaya had to come up with an effective way to make this monster believable. Artists from all over Japan were invited to submit design concepts for the creature, which was first imagined to resemble a giant octopus. Of the designs was one by Kazuyoshi Abe, which gave the creature more monkey-like feature, with a head to purposely look like a “mushroom cloud,” a reference to the atomic bomb (Tsutsui 20).
Unsatisfied with the submissions, art director Akiro Watanabe and sculptor Teizo Toshimitsu worked with Tsuburaya to create a new interpretation of the monster, something that should be “fresh, and recognizable at the same time.” Ultimately using a children’s dinosaur encyclopedia and an issue of American Life Magazine as inspiration, sketches were made to make the creature look like a prehistoric creature that had been mutated by an atomic blast. The mutated appearance was achieved by mashing up distinguishing features of several different familiar dinosaurs, such as the upright posture of a Tyrannosaurus rex and the dorsal plates on his back like a Stegosaurus. Furthermore, the final design gave the beast rough skin texture that implied severe scarring it might have received when it was exposed to nuclear radiation.
Honda came at this monster movie with the perspective of making it more like a war drama, with the monster embodying the dangers of nuclear combat. Also, the imagery of the film was influenced by the destruction of Japan that Honda saw first-hand before and after the war. Now, with everything about the physical appearance of the creature and scenery of the film finalized, one last factor they had to address was the name of the monster (Anderson 30).
Failing to come up with anything really promising, the crew started referring to the monster as “G,” which stood for “Giant.” Similar to how they came up with designs for the appearance, Toho Studios held a contest to help give the monster a name. However, there was a heavyset crew member that was given the nickname “Gojira” by his coworkers, a made up amalgam of the words gorira, meaning “gorilla,” and kujira, meaning “whale.” This nickname was not only used for naming the monster, but it was also used to design the first prototype of the Godzilla suit, which held a stuntman during filming (Tsutsui 25).
Failing to come up with anything really promising, the crew started referring to the monster as “G,” which stood for “Giant.” Similar to how they came up with designs for the appearance, Toho Studios held a contest to help give the monster a name. However, there was a heavyset crew member that was given the nickname “Gojira” by his coworkers, a made up amalgam of the words gorira, meaning “gorilla,” and kujira, meaning “whale.” This nickname was not only used for naming the monster, but it was also used to design the first prototype of the Godzilla suit, which held a stuntman during filming (Tsutsui 25).
The prototype for the suit was created by brothers Kanji and Koei Yagi, and weighed around 220 pounds. It was first constructed using bamboo and thin wire, wrapped in a layer of chicken wire for extra support, and then covered in a layer of fabric and cushioning. The outside rough layer of skin was made from melting down latex rubber and spreading it on the suit’s surface and then it was finally sealed with a coating of charcoal gray-colored lacquered varnish. Determining that Godzilla would have powerful atomically charged breath, the effects crew installed an aerosol nozzle inside the head of the costume that would spray a smoky mist. However, this first suit allowed for no movement at all.
To make the suit more efficient, they created a new one using foam, cotton, smaller amounts of bamboo, and instead of using latex rubber, they coated the suit in liquid plastic. This suit turned out not being any more lenient in movement than the last, and not wanting to waste time and effort creating another prototype, the suit was cut in half. For close up shots of Godzilla’s head and shoulders, the actor wore the top half of the suit, then if a shot focused on Godzilla’s legs, the actor wore the bottom half, like a giant pair of pants. Because the bottom half of the suit was so large and uneasy to move in, the actors essentially only could walk in a straight line, which played pretty well into Godzilla’s lumbering and inhuman movements. Also, to add to this, Godzilla’s movements were filmed at four times faster than normal speed so that when the film was slowed down to normal speed, it would heighten the illusion of Godzilla’s massive size even further (Tsutsui 40).
To make the suit more efficient, they created a new one using foam, cotton, smaller amounts of bamboo, and instead of using latex rubber, they coated the suit in liquid plastic. This suit turned out not being any more lenient in movement than the last, and not wanting to waste time and effort creating another prototype, the suit was cut in half. For close up shots of Godzilla’s head and shoulders, the actor wore the top half of the suit, then if a shot focused on Godzilla’s legs, the actor wore the bottom half, like a giant pair of pants. Because the bottom half of the suit was so large and uneasy to move in, the actors essentially only could walk in a straight line, which played pretty well into Godzilla’s lumbering and inhuman movements. Also, to add to this, Godzilla’s movements were filmed at four times faster than normal speed so that when the film was slowed down to normal speed, it would heighten the illusion of Godzilla’s massive size even further (Tsutsui 40).
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To make Godzilla’s now famous roar, film scorer Akira Ifukube rubbed a leather glove along the loosened strings of a double bass, then slowed down the recording. He also discovered how Godzilla’s booming footsteps would sound when he accidentally knocked over an amplifier box. To create the footsteps, Ifukube recorded himself kicking the box.
THE FIRST GODZILLA MOVIE: The original 1954 movie, Gojira, had many references to the historical events that occurred leading up to the release, with some even being part of the year it was released. For example, the movie starts with two Japanese fishing boats meeting the same fate after they see a blinding white light that seemed to come out of nowhere near the coast of the fictional Odo Islands. |
This can be seen as a reference to the Lucky Dragon tragedy, as mentioned previously. Also, the film makes many references to the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Although they do mention these events quite a bit, the characters in the film not once mentions America, which can be seen as honorable. Furthermore, if they had mentioned American, this movie would have turned into a war propaganda movie, which was the last thing the citizens of Japan wanted (Tsutsui 50). |
ORIGINAL 1954 GODZILLA TRAILER
One of the main characters, Dr. Yamane, is one of the scientists researching Godzilla and how to save the citizens. However, he is less interested in seeing the demise of Godzilla than he is in understanding how it can survive massive radiation exposure; there is even one scene where Dr. Yamane opposes the idea of an all-out military attack on Godzilla. Yamane’s intentions can be seen as representative of real world pacifistic approaches to nuclear war, which was an element heavily influenced by director Honda’s post-war experiences. Because of his opposing ideas to everyone else, we sympathize with Yamane as he struggles to get his point across to a nation hell bent on going to war with the creature (Honda, Godzilla).
Later in the movie, we see Godzilla come ashore to destroy downtown Tokyo, a scene that has since become an icon and essentially the most defining aspect of the Godzilla film franchise. After this destructive scene, we see hospitals that are full of people suffering either from injuries from Godzilla’s demolition or from radiation poisoning, which is another symbol of the Lucky Dragon. We are introduced to Dr. Serizawa, another character that attempts to stop Godzilla. We find out that he has stumbled across the discovery of an oxygen destroyer, a frightening and potentially world altering weapon that has the power to annihilate oxygen atoms and reduce living organisms to mere bones. This weapon is yet another thematic symbol for atomic weapons and nuclear war.
Serizawa refuses to use this weapon, even though he would be heroically killing the monster that is terrorizing the people of Japan. He does this because, looking beyond successfully killing Godzilla, he can see his technology getting into the wrong hands, which could have a devastating result. Because of his fear over how his weapon could be the bane of society, many critics have compared Serizawa to the infamous nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who took heavy part in the development of the first atomic bomb and spent his entire life haunted by what his scientific discoveries were turned into (Honda, Godzilla).
Serizawa refuses to use this weapon, even though he would be heroically killing the monster that is terrorizing the people of Japan. He does this because, looking beyond successfully killing Godzilla, he can see his technology getting into the wrong hands, which could have a devastating result. Because of his fear over how his weapon could be the bane of society, many critics have compared Serizawa to the infamous nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who took heavy part in the development of the first atomic bomb and spent his entire life haunted by what his scientific discoveries were turned into (Honda, Godzilla).
When it comes time to detonating the oxygen destroyer, Serizawa severs his oxygen line from the boat and detonates the weapon. Rather than seeing his powerful invention be used by others to destroy, he decides to sacrifice himself, letting all the information about the oxygen destroyer die with him. The bomb is thus set off and Godzilla is reduced to a skeleton. Despite the victory, Dr. Yamane is still fearful of what the future might bring. He fears that if we continue to test nuclear weapons (very symbolic of the fears of the 1950's), then the world has not seen the last of Godzilla’s kind (Honda, Godzilla).
Godzilla, in the original movie, was a symbolic figure of the nuclear debate that was happening at the time. Some people saw Godzilla as an embodiment of America, attacking Japan at an already weakened state. In a sense, the US were the “monsters” for destroying hundreds of thousands of innocent lives, and the monstrosity of the US and their nuclear power was conveyed through the use of Godzilla. At the time of the release, the film received criticism of it exploiting nuclear paranoia. However, what used to be seen as a misuse of tragic current events has since become an important post-WWII time capsule, disguised as a science fiction monster movie. Although the movie received criticism, it also had a massive commercial success. For many, seeing Godzilla had a post-war cathartic effect; after experiencing so many hardships over the years, the Japanese people saw Godzilla as a means of wiping the slate clean so they could start anew (Anisfield 57).
A year later, a set of small time Hollywood producers in the US came across this movie, and thought it had potential to succeed with American audiences, which is how the Americanization of Godzilla began.
A year later, a set of small time Hollywood producers in the US came across this movie, and thought it had potential to succeed with American audiences, which is how the Americanization of Godzilla began.