Godzilla: Lizard of Peace - Page 2

A Japanese ship fishing ship called the Fifth Luck Dragon was too close to the Marshall Islands at the time of the second explosion. The U.S. military knew the wind had shifted, but decided against delaying the test. The wind not only blew a fallout cloud of tropical snow onto an inhabited island, but onto the unlucky fishermen. By the time these men returned to port, they were suffering from radiation sickness. When questioned later, the fishermen recalled a sun-like object that seemed to rise in the west as the sea rumbled. What was a minor incident to Americans proved to be a catalyst for the Japanese peace movement.

The survivors of the A-bombs, called hibakusha in Japanese, also had described a burst of light and then there was fire, a fire that burned off skin and that would haunt generations of hibakusha. Downwinders, like the luckless fishermen and the islanders, would become victims of a destructive force that wasn't always responsibly administered.

From the beginning of the original uncut Japanese version of Godzilla, the audience is reminded of the atom bomb explosions. The first sign of trouble is a flash of light that comes from below the ocean. Suddenly the unlucky ship cruising into the spot of water illuminated by this strange white light, bursts into flames. A few more ships disappear in the same place, with almost all the crew dying instantly. When a few men survive, they have radiation sickness.

For the Japanese, Gojira, as Godzilla is called in Japan, was about the A-bomb and the H-bomb. In various ways, the atomic bomb explosions are constantly brought up. A passenger on a commuter train in Tokyo complains about the threat of Godzilla, remarking that she has already been evacuated once, coming to Tokyo in time to escape the destruction of the A-bomb on her hometown of Nagasaki.

Japan's leading paleontologist, Dr. Nakane (Takashi Shimura), tests for radiation and finds that the footprints of the giant lizard are radioactive. And after Tokyo has been attacked, some of the children test for radioactivity as well. Although surely the Japanese had heard if not seen the immediate horrors of the two A-bombs, they still didn't know the other lingering effects such as cancer and genetic problems.

Article Author: Purple Tigress

Former theater critic for the LA Weekly and Los Angeles Times . For the last five years, an editing slave at a dot-com but recently laid off. Currently an under-employed freelance writer and artist.

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