1945, the second world war came swiftly to an end after America dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. One bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and the other on Nagasaki three days after the first one, signifying the age of the fear of nuclear weapons. The bombs were the weapons that produced the powerful monster himself, the unstoppable Godzilla.
1954, the test on Bikini Atoll shook the world again as the bomb’s explosion was around 400 times bigger than the bomb that hit Hiroshima. It was only after the explosion that the real damage struck the country of Japan again. The crew of the Daigo Fukuryu Maru, a small Japanese fishing boat, was close enough to see the blast and received burns as soon as the shockwave hit. When the crew returned, they were found to have radiation sickness and the fish they had caught were unfit to eat, being covered in radiation. While the fish on the Maru were sealed away, the fish on all the other boats out fishing at the time sold their fish at the market. It was only a few months after the encounter with the Atoll bomb when Aikichi Kuboyama, the radio specialist on the Maru, died of what was suspected to be radiation poisoning. According to the Atomic Heritage Foundation, the famous words of the radio operator right before his death were “Please make sure that I am the last victim of the bomb.” This was the incident that inspired the creation of everyone’s favorite atomic lizard.
The original film, “Gojira (1954),” was originally planned to be similar to the movie, “The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953).” However, it was the Daigo Fukuryu Maru incident that inspired Tomoyuki Tanaka, the creator of Godzilla, to make Godzilla into a nuclear abomination. The inspiration from the bombs and the incident can be seen in several aspects of the movie. The opening scene includes the destruction of several fishing boats and the design of Godzilla’s skin was based on the burns of the victims of Hiroshima. The movie was an absolute hit with the Japanese people, the movie reflecting the fear of nuclear destruction and even quickly spreading in popularity in the United States. And thus, the mythical franchise was born.
Godzilla continued to rampage all over the world, becoming more popular with every movie. Eventually, this concluded in the end of the Showa era of Godzilla movies with the release of “Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)” and beginning the Heisei era with “The Return of Godzilla (1984)” which is well known as the best by most fans. Godzilla was growing. It was only after the Heisei era, ending with “Godzilla vs Destroyah (1995)”, that America began to create their own Godzilla movies beginning with the infamous “Godzilla (1998).” America held back after the badly received attempt until 2014, when they began the recently popular Monsterverse franchise with “Godzilla (2014).” Despite America’s Godzilla movies being produced at the same time, Toho continued to make more movies, kicking off the Millennium era with “Godzilla 2000: Millennium (1999)” which quickly ended with “Godzilla Final Wars (2004).” At last comes the current era of the Radioactive Dinosaur’s reign over the cinemas, the Reiwa era, beginning with “Shin Godzilla (2016)” and currently continuing with the very well received “Godzilla Minus one (2023).”
These 70 years of magic, these 38 live action movies, all currently concluded with the rerelease of the first Godzilla movie to ever win an Oscar, but it’s not over. Legendary Pictures, the producers of the Monsterverse franchise, exclaimed their excitement in plans to make another Legendary Godzilla movie, supposedly coming out in 2027 while Toho has recently stated they are making another movie directed by Takashi Yamazaki, the same man who directed the phenomenal “Godzilla Minus One”. Look out Godzilla fans, the big man himself is coming back to the big screen.
