The Historical Context of Gojira: The Castle Bravo Shot

Before Ishiro Honda and Toho Studios released the greatest movie monster created on the Japanese and the world, the United States released their greatest nuclear monster on the Bikini Atoll, the Castle Bravo shot. Castle Bravo was the largest nuclear device tested by America, the first dry-cell thermonuclear device ever detonated, and cause of the largest radiological accident caused by the United States. [1, 2, 3] The history of the Bravo shot ties inextricably with the opening scene of Gojira. The boiling sea that swallows a fishing boat called the Eiko-Maru at the beginning of the scene is meant to parallel the fate of the Fukuryu Maru ( Lucky Dragon), which was covered by a plume of fallout, irradiating its entire crew and killing one of the crew members months later. In this section, I detail the history of Castle Bravo, and how its impact on Gojira.

The Castle Bravo shot was performed on March 1, 1954, off of an island in the Bikini Atoll:

The sublime and overwhelming power of the Bravo shot was made possible the Ulam-Teller device, and an unexpected nuclear reaction. The Ulam-Teller device was a configuration of nuclear fissile material that allowed for nuclear weapons to become more explosive and destructive than what had been tested before through the process of inducing hydrogen fusion within the device . Before Operation Castle, the Ulam-Teller configuration had been experimentally implemented during Operation Ivy with success [4]. During Operation Castle, the success of the Bravo shot was too successful because of the synthesis of the Ulam-Teller device with its prototypal dry-cell fuel. The lithium contained in the fuel had an unexpected reaction with the neutrons produced by hydrogen fusion, and the detonation of the Bravo shot was almost three times more powerful than expected (15 megatons [Mt] against the expected 5 Mt). [5]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ensuing physical and radiological damage was expansive and drastic. The mushroom cloud from the detonation reached a peak elevation of almost 40 kilometers, with the cloud being 100 km across, and the stem 7 km. The Bravo crater was approximately 1.1 miles in diameter, and was 650 feet deep. [6] The radiological damage of Bravo shows the level of ignorance regarding the power of the newly-invented hydrogen bomb. The total area that was irradiated by the fallout was approximately 7,000 square miles. The cloud of fallout was carried by changing winds towards the islands of Rongelap, Utrik, and Ailinginae, and irradiated Americans, native Marshallese, and the Fukuryu Maru by covering the region with “ashes of death”, irradiated and  vaporized coral. [7]

The fallout zone of Castle Bravo

The Bravo shot and the irradiation of the Fukuryu Maru outraged the Japanese government, and was one of the polarizing events in creating the anti-nuclear movement in Japan. The Fukuryu Maru went undetected in the test zone, and was trolling for tuna approximately 190 km away from the Bravo shot, and was exposed to the rain of dust thick enough to leave footprints on the deck of the boat. The entire crew of 23 fishermen was afflicted with acute radiation sickness, and one died of disputed causes generally believed to have been secondary infection from radiation exposure. Bravo also caused significant damage to the tuna industry because of the widespread irradiation of the tuna around the epicenter. The response from the United States was to pay the Japanese government $2 million for the damages caused by Bravo on the crew of the Fukuryu Maru and the tuna industry. [8]

The connection between the Castle Bravo test and Gojira is significant because it created a direction for the creation of the film, and shows how nuclear testing is the origin of nuclear horror. The titular monster of the film was freed by the testing of nuclear weapons, as Dr. Yamane reveals to a council of politician and scientists after Gojira attacks Odo Island and starts its progress toward Tokyo. Originally, Godzilla was designed to be a prehistoric monster that awoke from its slumber in search of sustenance. But, producer Tomoyuki Tanaka proposed that, instead, the beast should be disturbed from its ocean habitat by American testing of thermonuclear weapons. [9] The recent anxiety caused by the Castle Bravo shot and the Fukuryu Maru incident created a logos for the film, such that Gojira became an allusion of nuclear horror derived from the relevant, Japanese anxieties and experiences of nuclear testing.

Footnotes:

[1] Richard Rhodes, Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), 541.

[2] Rhodes, Dark Sun, 541.

[3] Charles Zimmerman and Jack Dennis, “Nuclear Accidents,” in The Nuclear Almanac: Confronting the Atom in War and Peace, ed. Jack Dennis (Reading: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1984), 286-287.

[4] Rhodes, Dark Sun, 501-512.

[5] Rhodes, Dark Sun, 541.

[6] Operation Castle, last modified May 17 2006,

http://www.nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Castle.html

[7] Rhodes, Dark Sun, 542.

[8]American University Document Describing the Lucky Dragon Incident

[9] Steven Ryfle, “Godzilla’s Footprint” (essay appearing in Gojira: The Original Japanese Masterpiece DVD set, 2004).

Theorizing Gojira: Superweapons and the Body

Gojira is certainly a film about superweapons, weapons that are capable of  absolutely annihilating life.  At the end of Gojira, Dr. Daisuke Serizawa reveals his superweapon, the Oxygen Destroyer, after seeing a newscast of small children threatened by Gojira. His device annihilates all of the oxygen in the water it enters, disintegrating any life-forms present in the water. The newscast of small children carries enough pathos with Serizawa to give him the justification to use the Oxygen Destroyer on Gojira, who has retreated into the waters of Tokyo Bay. Serizawa’s superweapon successfully destroys Gojira, but also takes the life of Serizawa, who refused to the leave the waters of Tokyo Bay because of his guilt for unleashing such a device on the world. Does this mean Serizawa was actually unjustified in his action of using the Oxygen Destroyer, since he exhibited suicidal guilt from his actions?

Serizawa unleashes the Oxygen Destroyer, sacrificing himself in the process (source: io9.com)

Gojira shows how superweapons and physical bodies are inseparable entities. The physical annihilation wrought by the superweapon has an organic origin, and could not be inflicted without a body that extends its effects, whether the body is of Dr. Daisuke Serizawa or Gojira. H. Bruce Franklin writes:

            To create the objects that menace our existence, some people had to imagine them. Then to build these weapons, a much larger number of people had to imagine consequent scenarios – a resulting future – that seemed desirable. Thus our actual superweapons originated in their imagined history, which forms a crucial part of our culture [1].

Franklin discusses the necessity of a cultural body, and the imagination of the cultural body, in the creation of superweapons. When this foundation of analysis is applied to Gojira, it is proven to be correct. Serizawa required an imaginative impulse to create the Oxygen Destroyer, and he saw a resulting future in its use, the destruction of Gojira. However, Franklin’s analysis falls short when considering the necessity of the corporeal body in forming the superweapon. Serizawa’s sacrifice in the film shows the physical guilt of using a superweapon. The Oxygen Destroyer shows the necessity of physical guilt when using a superweapon. The function of the weapon is to be entirely inimical to life by annihilating the fundamental molecule of its existence, oxygen. Serizawa’s choice seems to parallel other justifications for using superweapons, such that the decision is a consequentialist dilemma for its maker and user.

The converse scenario of Serizawa’s physical guilt is the impact of divorcing the body from the superweapon seen in the dispassionate thermonuclear tests of the United States. I argue the body of Gojira is a surrogate of the American body in the film, since the American body is physically unrepresented in the film. The thermonuclear detonation that frees Gojira is never shown on screen, and is only revealed as the cause of Gojira’s rampage later in the film.  Jeffrey Jerome Cohen describes the body of the monster “as an embodiment of a certain  cultural moment – of a time, a feeling, and a place.” [2] Gojira inhabits the temporality, affection, and spatiality of the cultural moments surrounding its creation as the embodiment of wanton nuclear culture in America. Gojira is Castle Bravo, the firebombing of Tokyo, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, summed into a sublime manifestation of American dispassion. Ishiro Honda described Gojira in these these terms:

If Godzilla had been a dinosaur or some other animal, he would have been killed by just one cannonball. But if he were equal to an atomic bomb, we wouldn’t know what to do. So, I took the characteristics of an atomic bomb and applied them to Godzilla. [3]

The collision of “superbodies”, the physical bodies of the superweapons, imparts a clear point at the end of the film – the human superbody will triumph over the monstrous superbody. Serizawa’s guilt against the surrogate dispassion of Gojira joins their bodies together as they are both disintegrated in the waters of Tokyo Bay. The human triumph is bittersweet, however. The symbolism of their union is that even with the justified use of the superweapon, the use defined by physical guilt, humanity cannot continue the use of superweapons indefinitely. Serizawa sacrifices himself because the secrets of his weapon will die with him. The possibility of monstrosity continues, even with Godzilla’s destruction. Godzilla was only a surrogate of the American body of superweaponry. The final words of Dr. Yamane, the concluding words of the film, recognize this fact:

I cannot believe that Godzilla was the only surviving member of its species. If we keep conducting nuclear tests, it’s possible that another Godzilla might appear somwhere in the world, again! [3]

Professor Yamane, the nuclear prophet of Gojira (source: cultreviews.com)

 

Footnotes:

[1] H. Bruce Franklin, War Stars: The Superweapon and American Imagination (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2008), 4-5.

[2] Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, “Monster Culture (Seven Theses),” in Monster Theory: Reading Culture, ed. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996), 4.

[3] Gojira: The Original Japanese Masterpiece, directed by Ishiro Honda (1954; Tokyo, Japan: Toho Studios, 2004), DVD.

 

 

 

Gojira (1954)

Godzilla versus the JSDF

On November 3^rd of this year, a monster will celebrate its 60^th birthday. The monster is named Gojira (known in America as Godzilla), and this horror of the cinema is what inspired my inquest of nuclear horror in the first place. The original Japanese film, Gojira, was released on November 3^rd, 1954 by Toho Studios [1]. The creative team of Tomoyuki Tanaka (producer), Ishiro Honda (director), Eiji Tsuburaya (SFX director), and Shigeru Koyama (screenwriter) united under the idea of a prehistoric monster, disturbed from its aquatic habitat by nuclear testing, attacking the city of Tokyo with devastating force [2]. Their idea was not wholly original; The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, an American film released by Warner Brothers in 1953, deals with the same topic [3]. But, the creative crew of Gojira channeled their personal and cultural experiences with the firebombings of Japan, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the fallout clouds of the Pacific thermonuclear tests into the making of the film. The result of their channeling led to a film that is an allegory of the Japanese experiences with nuclear activity and nuclear horror.

The history, reception, and theory of Gojira are presented in this blog in three sections:

–          The Castle Bravo Test provides the historical context of Gojira. Castle Bravo was the largest thermonuclear detonation performed by the United States, and caused the one of the most severe radiological disasters ever. I discuss the events of Castle Bravo, and how they informed the making of Gojira.

–          The reception of Gojira is considered through two American remakes of the film, Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956) and Godzilla (2014).

–          The theory of Gojira considers the connection of superweapons and physical bodies in the film. Concepts from the cultural history of superweapons and monster theory reveal the various and inseparable bonds of superweapons to human and monstrous bodies.

Links to IMDb’s “Full Cast and Crew List” and “Plot Synopsis”:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047034/synopsis?ref_=tt_stry_pl

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047034/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast

Footnotes:

[1] Steven Ryfle, “Godzilla’s Footprint” (essay appearing in Gojira: The Original Japanese Masterpiece DVD set, 2004).

[2] Ryfle, “Godzilla’s Footprint”.

[3] Ryfle, “Godzilla’s Footprint”.

The Reception of Gojira: How Gojira Became Godzilla – 1956 and 2014

On May 16th, 2014, the fourth American remake of Gojira will be released by Legendary Pictures. This will be the fourth American remake of the 1954 Japanese film. The American remakes of the film are significant because of how they approach the topics of nuclear testing. A total of 27 Japanese sequels to Gojira have been made, with various plot continuities that adopt various scientific and political issues relevant to the Japanese people. Each American film remains within the periphery of the impact of nuclear testing. For this purpose of this article, I remain within the reception of the 1954 film Godzilla, King of the Monsters and the anticipation of the 2014 Godzilla. (The other American remakes, Godzilla 1985 and the 1998 Godzilla were both critically panned, and in order to keep this discussion focused, I avoid these films for that reason.) The American film response to Gojira shows the implications of nuclear horror during and after the Cold War era, since the Americans were responsible for events that inspired Godzilla: the World War II firebombings, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Castle Bravo test. These responses to Gojira allow for an understanding of how Americans perceived, and perceive, their roles in nuclear activity through film.

Godzilla, King of Monsters! is not so much a remake of Gojira as it is the Americanization of the film [1]. The beginning of the film departs from the Japanese introduction by starting the film with the American journalist Steve Martin lying in a pile of rubble in a post-Godzilla Tokyo, rather than the allusive foundering of the Eiko-Maru. Godzilla introduces the capsizing Eiko-Maru as one of many, anonymous fishing vessels being preyed upon by the monster Godzilla after introducing Steve Martin, and throughout the film, there is no mention of Godzilla being freed by nuclear testing. Godzilla becomes a rare monster, an anomaly of nature devoid of any nuclear implication. The reviews of the film show the outright omission of any nuclear subject material in the popular consciousness of the film in many cases. Major newspapers either disregarded or were ignorant to the nuclear inspiration of the Japanese original. Out of six contemporary reviews or advertisements I found for Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, half associated Godzilla with nuclear testing or atomic energy, but only in passing mention. [2,3,4] The rest only discussed Godzilla in terms of its exotic Japanese horror, Raymond Burr as its leading actor, and its special effects, without any mention of thermonuclear weapons testing. [5,6,7] The American Godzilla not only erased the nuclear origins of Gojira from the film itself, but its American reception indicates that the popular perception of the film was defined by terms of monstrous horror, rather than nuclear horror. Perhaps the nuclear themes of Gojira would not have had the same pathos with American audiences as with Japanese audiences, but I think the omission of Godzilla’s nuclear origins carries a political implication of guilt for America’s nuclear actions against Japan. Gojira’s metonymic existence as “the nuke” in the Japanese film condemns American nuclear testing and warfare. Godzilla, King of Monsters! grossed $2 million nationwide that year, and the condemnation would have been an inconvenient detail to show to American audiences [8].

The numerous trailers for the forthcoming Godzilla film, directed by Gareth Edwards, indicate that the 2014 American film will return to the concepts of nuclear horror founded in Gojira in 1954. The two trailers I posted with this article reveal different facets of nuclear horror. The first trailer’s significant suggestion of this return is seen in the nuclear catastrophe that starts the trailer, and how the main character Joe wants to discover the truth behind the disaster. There is minimal implication in this trailer of Godzilla’s nuclear origins, but the second trailer released by Legendary Pictures does not shy away from the nuclear origins of the creature. From 1:04 – 1:16, the dialogue states that Godzilla was awakened by humanity, and that the nuclear tests performed in the Pacific Ocean were intended to kill it. With these details, the 2014 release of Godzilla will have some interesting implications. The trailers have a mixed tone of America accepting responsibility for the damage of nuclear testing, but also have a subtle, fictional apologetics interspersed within their content. The trailers subtly justify the thermonuclear tests in the Pacific, even if through fictional means. The ultimate political commentary of the film remains unknown, but the trailers show something lacking in the 1954 Godzilla, a nuclear component of the horror. The presence of nuclear horror in Godzilla (2014) shows that American film can discuss the nuclear weapons testing of the 1950s, and that film audiences of the United States are ready to consider their country’s involvement in creating real, nuclear horror.

Footnotes:

[1] Godzilla, King of Monsters!, from the Gojira: The Original Japanese Masterpiece DVD set, directed by Terry Morse (1956; New York, NY: Toho Studios, 2004), DVD.

[2] Chicago Daily Tribune Advertisement

[3]Variety Magazine Review

[4]New York Amsterdam News Advertisement

[5]Los Angeles Times Review

[6]Hartford Courant Advertisement

[7]New York Times Review

[8] Steven Ryfle, “Godzilla’s Footprint” (essay appearing in Gojira: The Original Japanese Masterpiece DVD set, 2004).