Resilience In Ishirō Honda's Movie Godzilla

Resilience, the ability to overcome or recover quickly from a difficult situation, has been shown many times throughout Ishirō Honda’s 1954 film Godzilla. Taking place in Japan, the movie starts out with a series of mysterious ship disappearances off the coast of Odo Island. After a massive storm destroys most of Odo Island, the Japanese government sends Dr. Kyohei Yamane, a paleontologist, and his team of researchers to investigate the phenomenon that plagued the area. While examining the island, Yamane stumbles upon a giant dinosaur, Godzilla, who emits radiation, similar to that of the hydrogen bombs tested by the United States. After further investigation, Yamane concluded that Godzilla was created because of its exposure to the radiation

When first seeing Godzilla, the idea of a dinosaur comes to mind, yet the idea of a prehistoric dinosaur living during this time seems implausible. After some speculation by Dr. Yamane, he proposed that Godzilla was the result of gradual evolution of an ancient sea creature, while, simultaneously undergoing genetic alterations due to the exorbitant amount of radiation that filled his habitat. Since the bomb testings left Godzilla’s habitat in shambles, it ventured out from its dwelling place, and as a result, lead to the destruction of two Japanese cities. From the theory presented by Dr. Yamane, parallelisms are drawn between Japan and Godzilla since Japan was also the recipient of two atomic bombs from the Americans during World War II. Because of these atomic bombs, Japan was turned from a once beautiful island, to a radiation wasteland. On August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb, named Little Boy, was dropped on Hiroshima, and three days later, August 9, 1945, the United States dropped another atomic bomb, named Fat Boy, on Nagasaki. Japan was in shambles as the streets were lined with the dead, sick, and few surviving citizens. As time passed, one can say that the nation of Japan was reborn from a land of radiation. Similar to Japan, Godzilla was created from a habitat that was created by testing atomic bombs. By destroying its underwater habitat, the

Furthermore, utilizing Godzilla as a symbol for Japan can be recognized during an ironic twist towards the final moments of the film. During this scene, Godzilla was portrayed as a symbol of Japan, whereas Japan can be regarded as a symbolic representation of the United States. After the destruction of Tokyo, the Japanese government came to the conclusion that Godzilla must be killed in order to preserve and protect Japan and its citizens. Dr. Daisuke Serizaw, a colleague of Dr. Yamane, created a device called the Oxygen Destroyer. The Oxygen Destroyer is a type of bomb that can physically break apart bonds within water to disintegrate the oxygen molecules. Consequently, this caused the organism, within its radius, to perish due to rotting asphyxiation. Being symbolized as Japan, Godzilla met its demise due to Japan’s utilization of this atomic bomb, whereas Japan can be characterized as the United States because of their implementation of this weapon. Since the concept of the atomic bomb and the Oxygen Destroyer are similar, the portrayal of Japan as the United States can be drawn in this instance. Furthermore, the similarities between the atomic bomb and the Oxygen Destroyer due to the devastation that it causes within the wildlife of the surrounding area. The parallelisms drawn between Japan representing the United States and Godzilla representing