From Godzilla To Monster Island

FROM GODZILLA
TO MONSTER ISLAND
CULTURE & POWER IN JAPANESE KAIJU

Gojira
1954
Godzilla,
King of the
Monsters
1956
Destroy
All
Monsters
1968

CONTEXTUAL
ANALYSIS
WHAT DO FILMS REVEAL ABOUT THE SOCIETIES THAT MAKE THEM?
HOW CAN WE UNDERSTAND CHANGES IN FILMS ACROSS SPACE & TIME?

CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS
CONTEXT
1. The part of a text
that surrounds a
particular word or
passage and
determines its
meaning.
2. The circumstances
in which an event
occurs; a setting.
ANALYSIS
1. Seeks to
reconstruct the
conditions of
production
2. Assumes elements
in the text point to
context

TWO MAIN TYPES
1.Cultural
2.Political

CULTURAL CONTEXT
IMPLICATURES
The domain of
assumptions the text
takes for granted as
not needing to be
explained.
ASSUMPTIONS
What assumptions
about the world do
producers take for
granted that their
(primary) audience
will share?

CULTURAL CONTEXT
REFERENTIAL
One aspect of culture is
the sum of everyday
practices and the social
institutions in which they
are embedded.
Media reference these
institutions and
practices.
COSMOLOGICAL
A second aspect of
culture is that it orients
us in the universe. It
defines what is important
about time and space,
gives us a range of
value orientations, and
defines what is important
to pay attention to.
Media encode these
orientations in their
structure.

POLITICAL CONTEXTS
Every text encodes the power
relations existing in the
society which produced it.

POLITICAL CONTEXT
IMPLICATURES
The domain of
assumptions the text
takes for granted as
not needing to be
explained.
ASSUMPTIONS
What assumptions
about the world do
producers take for
granted that their
(primary) audience
will share?

“Mysterious, wonderful, curious, strange.” Interest in fushigi (especially yokai,
ghosts and bakemono) grew as Japan modernized perhaps as a way to hold on
to aspects of Japanese “character” in the face of Westernization.
FUSHIGI

Creatures from Japanese folklore. Creatures that dwell in the borders between
human and nonhuman, this-worldly and otherworldly.
YOKAI

DEFEAT
• 1941-1945 American submarines destroyed a large portion of the
Japanese merchant marine, causing a severe shortage of supplies.
• 1945 March+ A series of massive air raids destroyed much of
Tōkyō and other major industrial cities.
• 1945 April+ Vital water routes and ports of Japan were mined by
air disrupting Japanese shipping.
• 1945 Fall Soviet invasion/liberation of Manchuria
• 1945 August Two atomic bombs dropped by the United States
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• More than half of the 2.1 million Japanese who died in the war died
in the last year, mostly of malnutrition and starvation.
• Almost 600,000 Japanese civilians died from US bombings of 69
cities. Another 100,000 died of malnutrition, starvation and exposure.

OCCUPATION
• Unconditional Surrender
• The Shinto-based cult of the Emperor was ended.
• The emperor is stripped of all power.
• Japanese leaders are tried for war crimes; seven are
executed.
• The Japanese Empire was dissolved.
• Japan was stripped of its overseas possessions and retained
only the home islands.
• Seven million Japanese expatriates were repatriated
• Japan stripped of all right to maintain a standing army
• US established permanent military bases

Gojira “is a virtual
recreation of the
Japanese military and
civilian experience of
the final months of WWII”
Peter Brothers 2011: 37
ALLEGORY

1954
Daigo Fukuryu Maru
“Lucky Dragon 5”
Caught in the flash
of a US H-Bomb test
Every sailor died of
radiation poisoning

OPENING SCENE: GOJIRA 1954
A small Japanese
fishing boat floats
quietly at sea. The
fishermen are relaxing.
Suddenly their
tranquil moment is
shattered by a flash
of white light that
blinds them, and melts
the flesh from their
bones. The radio
operator gets off one
final message before
succumbing.

WWII
From 1942 onward,
air raid sirens might
shriek day or night
to indicate a US
bombing raid.
GOJIRA
Director Inishiro
Honda directs
special effects
master Eiji
Tsubaraya to make
Gojira’s roar sound
like an air raid siren,
and footsteps sound
like bombs falling.
Based on Brothers 2011

WWII
On the night of
March 9, 1945, US
B-29s dropped tons
of incendiaries on
Tokyo, destroying
250,000 homes,
burning out 10
square miles of the
city and leaving
1,000,000 homeless
GOJIRA
A sea of fire engulfs
Tokyo as Gojira
engages in his night
rampage.

WWII
The Japanese Home
Defense mobilizes
citizens to fight the
US invasion of the
Japanese mainland
from the sea.
GOJIRA
The Japanese Home
Defense mobilizes
citizens to repel
Gojira’s second
attack, which is from
the sea.

WWII
In the last months of
the war, the
Japanese military
was overwhelmed by
the superior numbers
and technology of
its enemy.
GOJIRA
The Japanese
military is helpless in
their attempts to
stop the onslaught
of Gojira.

WWII
Japan must face the
US alone; Italy and
Germany have
already surrendered.
GOJIRA
Japan faces Gojira
alone, with no other
country giving aid.

WWII
Radio bulletins warn
of impending US air
raids, searchlights
slice through the air
and sirens urge
residents to seek
shelter.
GOJIRA
Radio bulletins warn
Tokyo residents that
the monster is
approaching as
searchlights slice
through the air and
sirens wail.

WWII
Kamikaze unit flyers
don hachimaki
headbands as they
set out in desperate
and unconventional
last-ditch efforts to
defeat the Allied
powers.
GOJIRA
Ogata and
Serizawa don
headbands as they
prepare to use the
oxygen destroyer in
a last ditch effort to
defeat Godzilla;
Serizawa commits
suicide.

WWII
Japanese cities are
reduced to rubble
by conventional
bombings, fire raids,
and the atomic
bombings.
GOJIRA
After Gojira’s final
assault on Tokyo, the
camera pans over a
devastated
landscape of broken
buildings and
burning rubble.

WWII
Hospitals in Japan
are overflowing with
victims of the atomic
bomb attacks, known
as the gembakusha.
GOJIRA
After Gojira’s
second attack,
Japanese hospitals
are filled to
overflowing with
patients suffering
terrible radiation
burns.

Horror films have long been a staple of Hollywood. A recent spate of films have
been based on the notion that science (especially atomic science) is a
necessary evil, a two-edged sword—as when the Beast From 20,000 Fathoms is
both raised by an atomic bomb and destroyed by a nuclear missile.
MONSTER MOVIES

With some rare exceptions, Americans would not watch films with non-white leading
actors, although specialized “secondary cinemas” exist. East Asian in mainstream
movies were usually played by white actors in “yellowface.”
RACE

INTERNATIONALISM
• WWII has put the US at the top of the global hierarchy of
states
• WWII has effectively shattered lingering US fantasies of
isolationism
• The Bretton Woods agreement has remade international trade
rules along the lines desired by US capitalism
• World divided into two opposed camps engaged in a “Cold
War”
• In 1949 the USSR successfully tested an H-Bomb
• An arms race ensued, with global peace mainteined by fear
of “Mutually Assured Destruction.”

GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS
Forty minutes of
character-driven
drama are cut and
replaced with
twenty minutes of
scenes of a white
American
newspaper
reporter covering
the story of
Godzilla

The scenes of the
Japanese fishing
vessel are moved
to an interior
scene. The vessel
is destroyed by
Godzilla.

The love triangle
between Emiko
and the scientist
Serizawa and the
military officer
Ogata is
effectively
eliminated.

Victims in the
hospital are said
to have “strange
burns” rather than
radiation burns.
Indeed, the word
“radiation” is cut
from the film.

The one brief
reference to
Godzilla’s origin
in a bomb test
uses the term H-
Bomb (associated
with the USSR)
rather than the
US term A-Bomb

All scenes
referring to
Japan’s wartime
past (like this
one) are
removed.

Dr. Serizawa’s
weapon is
reduced from
terrible to
containable
proportions,
making his suicide
less
comprehensible.

Dr. Yamane’s
soliloquy at the
end, in which he
warns against the
dangers of
atomic
experimentation,
is cut.

Godzilla, King of the
Monsters imagines a world
in which technological
weapons both create
extraordinary destruction,
yet also save us from it—
not unlike the logic of the
arms race.
ALLEGORY

“Monsters.” Monster films—and television, anime and manga—have become big
business, forming a popular genre of Japanese culture.
KAIJU

“Special effects.” Godzilla’s success spawned an industry of tokusatsu movies
and television, utilizing live actors and lots of showy effects.
TOKUSATSU

JAPANESE PROSPERITY
• Japan has had more than a decade of rising prosperity and
no end in sight.
• Massive boost from the Korean War, in which it acted as a major
supplier to the UN force
• Emerged as a significant power in steel working, car
manufacturing and the manufacturing of electronic goods.
• Catches up with the West in foreign trade, GNP, and
general quality of life.
• Hosted 1964 Olympic Games
• Rise of progressive local governments concerned with enhancing
the quality of life in urban areas.

BUNKA PAWA
Youth Culture: The emergence of a repertoire of overlapping
practices, representations and artifacts circulating among
adolescents, teens and twentysomethings worldwide

BUNKA PAWA
Bunka Pawa: National cultural influence in the world, through the
penetration of Japanese images, ideas, films, publications, lifestyle
pursuits, novels, etc.

BUNKA PAWA
Bunka Pawa: National cultural influence in the world, through the
penetration of Japanese images, ideas, films, publications, lifestyle
pursuits, novels, etc.
Dochakuka: “global localization.” Originally referring to a way of
adapting scientific farming techniques to local conditions,
dochakuka evolved into a marketing strategy, adapting global
forms to local market conditions.

DESTROY ALL MONSTERS
In the year 1999
humanity enjoys a
period of relative
peace, having
successfully
relocated Earth’s
many monsters to
one island,
imprisoned by
invisible force
fields

An evil race of mind-
controlling aliens
known as the Kilaaks
enslave the scientists
who watch over
Monster Island, and
use them to
deactivate the
island’s force fields.
The Kilaaks then take
control of Earth’s
monsters and
command them to
attack the major cities
of the world.

The humans travel to
the Kilaak’s moon
base and destroy the
technology
responsible for the
Kilaaks’ mind-control
powers. The monsters
turn on the Kilaaks,
who send King
Ghidorah to Earth to
destroy them. But King
Ghiddorah is no
match for a whopping
ten terrestrial monsters

After defeating the
evil Kilaaks, the
monsters return to
their island, and
the world returns
to peace.

What political and
cultural changes in Japan
do you think account for
this very different kind of
“monster” story? What
does it reflect?
ALLEGORY

REFERENCES
Allison, Anne. Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global
Imagination.
Brothers, Peter H. 2011. Godzilla’s nuclear nightmare: How the bomb
became a beast called Godzilla. Cineaste Summer 36-40.
Craig, Timothy J. Japan Pop!: Inside the World of Japanese Popular
Culture.
Low, Morris. 2008. The birth of Godzilla: Nuclear fear and the ideology
of Japan as victim. Japanese Studies 13(2): 48-58.
Martinez, Dolores P. The Worlds of Japanese Popular Culture: Gender,
Shifting Boundaries, and Global Cultures.
Schwartzman, Victor. 2007. How Gojira became Godzilla. Canadian
Dimension 41(5): 44-45.
Tsutsui, William M. and Michiko Ito, eds. 2006. In Godzilla's Footsteps:
Japanese Pop Culture Icons on the Global Stage. Palgrave
MacMillan.

From Godzilla To Monster Island

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