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Gojira Symbolism

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As the monster Gojira came lumbering over the buildings of Tokyo on the big screen in 1954, director Ishiro Honda saw his dream of seeing a film focused on the devastation of nuclear weapons play out. Although, his film could not clearly be about the devastation, his symbolism of the monster as the atomic bomb was clear to all Japanese, even if it was not clear to foreigners viewing the film. The film, Gojira, and its many reiterations over the years, is a result of the atomic attacks that took place almost a decade previous, the following occupation and continued use of nuclear weapons by the United States, the lingering anxieties had towards these nuclear weapons and the censorship that encased Japan after the United States occupation. As …show more content…

Both these events rocked the country and its citizens, leaving many with lingering anxieties over the threat of atomic bombs. These anxieties were not helped by the United States continued use and testing of these weapons in Japan. Just a couple years before the film was released, the United States dropped their first H-bomb on a small Japanese island. Additionally, in 1954 the United States dropped another H-bomb, that exposed a boat, Daigo Fukuryū Maru, and its crew to high amounts of radiation. (Noriega 1987:65) This disaster is shown in the opening scene of Gojira, a scene that would be recognizable to all Japanese watching the film. Honda, like many Japanese shared these anxieties over the devastation of atomic weapons, but he recognized that he could not make a film explicitly about these weapons. (also about the guilt of americans by showing tis scene.)This was due to the censorship laws under the occupation. This censorship did not allow media to criticize the United States, (Rosenfeld 2002:86) and if Honda had explicitly made a film of the aftermath of the United States attack on Japan, it would be a criticism. There was no outlet for these concerns because this, which lingered even after they left the country, hence why Honda posed the atomic threat as a monster in his

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