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Yi Yu

Professor Beadle

English 115

7 November 2017

Godzilla--A Monster that Dies and Lives

Have you ever been scared by a monster and tried to remove it from your head? I assure

you have. But if we are talking about the well-known Japanese monster Godzilla, its another

story. For the past 60 years, people in Japan and the US have recreated series of Godzilla movies

since the original Japanese Gojira movie came out in 1954. The monster people have always

loved, Gojira, also known as Godzilla, symbolizes nuclear power. However, what people try to

express with Godzilla varies from movies. Generally speaking, Gojira (1954) is a condemnation

of Americas use of nuclear weapons against Japan in World War II. On the other hand, Shin

Godzilla (2016) is a response to the Fukushima Nuclear Leak in 2011 and a story of how people

would deal with the conflict. (Atwater, 1) Although these two movies both involve Godzilla, the

monster endures different fates in the end. Godzilla was killed in Gojira and was frozen to

coexist with human in Shin Godzilla. This is a significant change for me because it implies

Japans changed attitude from resistance to acceptance towards nuclear power, emphasizes

Japans cherishment towards their beloved monster, and successfully opens a new era of

Godzilla films. Of course, one might object here that the change is just something that the

director wanted to make so that people can distinguish Shin Godzilla from Gojira. But let us not

forget that Godzilla, as a monster, symbolizes nuclear power in these two movies. Thus, this

change cannot be random and we certainly should not undermine it.

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One way to look at the monster in Gojira is that it symbolizes atomic bombs that

America used against Japan during World War II. The destructions of the monster and the

radiation coming along were almost equal to the effects given by atomic bombs. The monster has

brought Japanese people great suffering and pain, and there is no doubt that people would make

every effort to destroy the monster. Those efforts included building giant electrical nets, using

trains to hit the monster, and even killing him with an oxygen destroyer. We can see the bravery

inside Japanese people through the death of the monster. In other words, we can view the dead

monster as the determination of Japanese people to overcome their trauma caused by atomic

bombs as well as their resentment towards nuclear weapons.

Another way to look at the monster in Gojira is that it represents consequences of Japans

too frequent nuclear tests. In the film, nuclear weapon tests in the Pacific awaken the monster,

and make him radioactive. Godzilla acts on his suffering by attempting to destroy Tokyo. The

monster suggests that men have become too powerful because they make war; consequently,

society is no longer in harmony with the natural order of things (Shapiro, 275). The fact that

Japan itself starts to make nuclear weapons has begun to damage Japans natural environment.

That is why Godzilla rages, like a wounded child, against Tokyo (Shapiro, 273). The monster

plays a role as if it were nature itself. It was hurt, irritated and unable to reason with. The death

of Godzilla shows Japans public opinions on nuclear issues: further nuclear tests need to be

stopped, otherwise, like Dr. Yamene said in the film, there is going to be another Godzilla.

Godzillas death in Gojira implies how unwilling Japanese people would use nuclear power

because they believed that nuclear power could only serve unwanted use. That is to say, Japanese

people did not wish to cooperate nuclear power in their daily life by then.
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On the other hand, the monster is frozen to coexist with human beings instead of being

killed in Shin Godzilla. Unlike the wartime, nuclear power is so widely used all over Japan today

(for positive use). As a matter of fact, Japanese people cannot live without nuclear power

anymore due to their need of electricity. So far, Japans 50+ main reactors have provided some

30% of electricity and this was expected to increase to at least 40% by 2017. (Nuclear Power

in Japan) Shin Godzilla, representing unprecedented nuclear power, is more destructive than it

ever was. The film Shin Gojira is universally recognized as a projection of the Fukushima

Nuclear Leak that happened in 2011. The freezing method that the Japanese government used

against Godzilla in the film was exactly the same method applied to deal with the Leak in reality.

At first, people tried to use atomic bombs to terminate the monster until Yaguchis Team enacted

the deep freeze plan. The choice of not killing the monster but coexisting with it not only reflects

Japans fear of losing a city again, but also emphasizes the importance of nuclear power for

Japan today. For all times, Godzilla symbolizes nuclear power. Simply speaking, if Japanese

people keep Godzilla with them, it means they would like to keep using nuclear power in the

future. They would risk getting disasters from nuclear power rather than giving up this extremely

beneficial power source for it has already tightly connected to their life.

Whats more, the frozen Godzilla implies Japans cherishment towards their beloved

monster. Even 60 years after the first Godzilla movie, this monster still attracts audiences from

the world. For Japanese people, they have cherished the creation of this monster for it has

become an icon of Japanese science fiction movies and a character to convey their ideas. In fact,

Godzilla is a threshold for many Japanese (survivors included) to express their feelings. These

people no longer wish to be thought of as innocent victims of a tragic event. But the (local,

national, and international) politics and economics of victimization prevents them from speaking
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out. (Shapiro, 305) The fate (frozen but not killed) of Shin Godzilla leaves a possibility that the

monster may still be alive after all. It is crucial for most Japanese people who wish to have the

monster stayed in the movies. Moreover, for a long time, Japan tends to see itself as a victim of

World War II, but this specific monster provides the world with a new insight to look at Japan.

The new insight is that Japan begins to realize it could play the role of an aggressor and could

be responsible for disasters. That is why Godzilla is special to his people, and his people loved

him so much that they give him a possibility to live in the movies. The monster is so loved that a

lot of Japanese children (usually boys) start to consider Gojira part of their nakama, or clique,

and their protector. (Shapiro, 287)

Furthermore, the design of the different fate that Shin Godzilla endured opens a new era

of Godzilla films. While most Godzilla films gave the monster a dead ending, Shin Godzilla

ignores all previous Godzilla films for its continuity, allowing the monster to be completely

unprecedented in the films continuity. (Atwater, 1) Why would Toho re-create such a different

Godzilla? If the company only meant to catch eyeballs and attention, it could just make another

monster and use all the fancy computer graphics technology on it. But instead, Toho created a

new story for Godzilla, a new film that gets the whole Japan and even the world to talk about.

This really is a bold move, considering the fact that re-creating a new movie based on the classic

one can get lots of polarized comments. We could see the ambition in Toho to challenge the idea

of the original Godzilla. But more importantly, we could interpret that nuclear is still a major

issue in Japan. If no audience is interested in Shin Godzilla, we can assert that Toho would not

invest 15 million dollars in making this movie. On the opposite, people not only came to watch

the film, but also love Shin Godzilla. They accepted the new fate given to the new monster. Lets

not think about it as an easy job. We could accept old ideas without effort, but convincing other
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people to accept new ideas takes time and skills. Toho made a great start. Regardless of the

improvement in technical parts (e.g. computer graphics), Shin Godzilla is a metaphor of mans

tampering with science, as relevant a message today as it was over fifty years ago. (Brothers,

56) Shin Godzilla represents an incredibly timely issue with the nuclear threat still felt by the

Japanese people. (Atwater, 2) The connection between Fukushima Nuclear Leak in 2011 and

Shin Godzilla enables Japanese audiences to empathize with the people in the film. The

revolutionary new ending of Shin Godzilla improves the idea of the original Gojira, catches up

with the current Japanese society, and meets Japanese audiences timely emotional needs. That is

to say, this changed ending has succeeded in opening a new era of Godzilla films. Could this

monster be still alive? If so, what is his next move? Will Godzilla continue destroying Tokyo or

do something completely different? Questions like these could interest audiences and very likely

to bring a brand new Godzilla film.

All in all, the change of fates that Godzilla endures at the end of two films--being killed

in Gojira and being frozen to coexist with human in Shin Godzilla, is a significant change for

me. From being dead to possibly being alive, the changed fate of Godzilla means more than just

a new ending. Since Godzilla symbolizes nuclear power, through this change, we can have a

glimpse of the nuclear power struggles that Japanese people have experienced for the past sixty

years.

In conclusion, this change implies Japans attitude from resistance to acceptance towards

nuclear power, highlights Japans cherishment to their beloved monster, and successfully starts a

new era of Godzilla films. I cannot wait to have a look at the next Godzilla movie. Wouldnt it

be exciting to see how the story goes? What will Godzilla imply in the new film this time? The

answers remain in to be continued

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Works Cited

Anno, Hideaki, Director. Shin Godzilla. Toho, 2016.

Atwater, Ben. Shin Godzilla: A Terrifying, Timely Return of a Titan. University Wire, 2 Nov.

2016, pp.1-2

Brothers, Peter H. Japans Nuclear Nightmare: How the Bomb Became a Beast Called

Godzilla. Monsters, edited by Andrew J. Hoffman, Bedford/St. Martins, 2016, pp.51-59

Honda, Ishiro, Director. Gojira. Toho, 1954.

Nuclear Power in Japan. World Nuclear Association, Oct. 2017, http://www.world-

nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/countries-g-n/japan-nuclear-power.aspx

Shapiro, Jerome F. Atomic Bomb Cinema: The Apocalyptic Imagination on Film, Vol. 8,

Florence, Taylor and Francis, 2013, pp.273-275, 287, 305