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
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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
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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
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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.
Recommend Recommended by 1 Readers
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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.
Recommend Recommended by 9 Readers
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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.
Recommend Recommended by 1 Readers
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5.
Davidwh
Los Angeles
March 14th, 2011
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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.
Recommend Recommended by 2 Readers
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6.
eyerollergrit city, wa
March 14th, 2011
7:18 pm
fascinating. great piece.
Recommend Recommended by 1 Readers
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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.
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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...
Recommend Recommended by 2 Readers
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
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10.
Bert
Philadelphia
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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.
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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.
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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.
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14.
Nici
Melbourne, Australia
March 14th, 2011
8:07 pm
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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.
Recommend Recommended by 1 Readers
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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.
Recommend Recommended by 0 Readers
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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.
Recommend Recommended by 0 Readers
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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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