By Robert Whiting
The first movie I ever saw that had Japan or Japanese people in it was Godzilla, in 1957. I was 14 years old and I saw it at the local Eureka Theater, a cinema in the small coastal fishing and logging town of Eureka, California, population 29,000. It was a science fiction horror movie—which is what attracted me in the first place—but what I remember of it today, aside from the horrible dubbing in English and the destruction of Tokyo, was the frank depiction of the horrors of the atomic bomb.
A number of Godzilla sequels followed, most of which I saw, as Godzilla evolved from a fearsome creature to a less destructive, more sympathetic one—a victim of nuclear apocalypse that became part of the cultural landscape in the United States as well as in Japan. The original film was ranked one of the “10 Best Monster Movies of All Time” by Variety. The series went on to become the longest continuously running franchise in movie history, recognized by Guinness World Records.
Everyone in America has long known the name Godzilla. In 1985 Godzilla appeared in an ad for Diet Pepsi, and in 1992 Nike ran a TV ad depicting a one-on-one basketball game between Godzilla and NBA superstar Charles Barkley, in which Godzilla is defeated (the commercial was so successful it was adapted into a comic book). MLB fans had an instant affinity for Hideki Matsui when he made his Yankees debut carrying the nickname Godzilla, which the New York tabloids quickly picked up, and after the Texas Rangers signed Yu Darvish, pitching coach Mike Maddux quipped during a Dallas radio interview that he was watching a lot of Godzilla movies to pick up the Japanese language. When Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright once knocked over a stack of Gatorade cups during a dugout TV interview, he bragged that he was stronger than Godzilla, and film clips from the movies accompanied the replay on the evening news.
Godzilla has been considered a filmographic metaphor for the United States, as well as an allegory of nuclear weapons in general. The earlier Godzilla films, especially the original, portrayed Godzilla as a frightening nuclear monster, representing the fears many Japanese held about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the possibility of recurrence—and drawing on the Daigo Fukuryu Maru (Lucky Dragon) incident, in which a Japanese fishing crew was irradiated by a U.S. nuclear test in the South Pacific.
The U.S.-Japan relationship has always been a subtext of Godzilla films, and the latest, Shin Godzilla, which opened in late July in Japan selling 5 million tickets and is due for US distribution next month, is no exception. In it, politicians preach self-reliance and complain about American interference as the Japanese Self-Defense Force steps forward with fighter jets, Apache helicopters and new Type 10 tanks. Said the Washington Post’s Tokyo correspondent Anna Fifield, the film portrays a militarily stronger, more confident Japan, with “soft nationalism” at its core. A USA Today headline put it more bluntly: “New ‘Godzilla’ Makes Japan’s Military the Tough Guys.”
In this film, the United States does not come off particularly well. US bombers sent to stop Godzilla barely dent the creature but destroy much of Tokyo in the process. The US urges a thermonuclear attack on Tokyo, supported by the UN, and the Pentagon advises Americans in Tokyo to leave. But Japan resists and seeks its own solution—freeze-drying the beast using a formula invented by a Japanese scientist. The president of the USA sends a young national security aide, a Japanese-American named Kayoko Ann Patterson, to help Japan—but she eventually comes around to the Japanese point of view. “I won’t go back,” she says, “because I don’t want my country to make the third mistake in the country of my grandmother”—an obvious reference to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Godzilla, you may be interested to know, has also reared his ugly head in American politics this year, as there have been numerous comparisons between the monster and Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s presidential candidate. The similarities, of course, are there—both are large, loud figures who cause a lot of chaos wherever they go. Trump hasn’t destroyed any cities yet, but he has called for a total ban on Muslims and the mass deportation of 11 million undocumented Mexican immigrants, among other things, and has called Japan a “freeloader” for relying on free US military protection while resisting free trade.
These comparisons have been duly noted in the media since the brash, outspoken Trump (who might also be compared to Shintaro Ishihara, Tsuneo Watanabe and other real-life Japanese characters) made his entrance on the political scene last June. His clash with fellow Republican candidate Carly Fiorina was billed on one poster as Godzilla versus Mothra. As Trump racked up primary victories, CNN showed viewers a poster signed by establishment Republican leaders reading, “Donald Trump is Godzilla and we are Tokyo, being totally destroyed” (with a Trump quote at the bottom: “I haven’t even revealed my true powers yet”). After Trump wrapped up the nomination, Late Show host Stephen Colbert remarked to his audience, “Yes, Trump is unstoppable, like Godzilla with less foreign policy experience.”
Finally, Ernesto Samper, secretary-general of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), said the possibility of Donald Trump becoming the next US president is “like Godzilla coming to world politics.” Asked by AFP whether UNASUR had a reflection on this, he replied, “Of course. More than a reflection. We are terrified.”
Oddly enough, when you get right down to it, the Trump philosophy is not without its similarities to that of PM Abe, in that he has preached self-reliance and a soft nationalism of his own—let America take care of America and Japan take care of Japan, both militarily and in trade. Unfortunately, Trump apparently fails to realize the benefits America enjoys from its relationship with Japan, something that even I understand. Trump’s post-election policy may do more damage to the United States than he ever imagined, if he is serious about what he has been saying.
Stay tuned for the sequel: The American Godzilla Destroys Washington DC!
NOTE: Stephen Hawking once said he could understand the mysteries of the universe but not the appeal of Donald Trump to ordinary people.
Tokyo Junkie 