65 years ago, a plane called the Enola Gay and a device called "Little Boy" put the United States, and the rest of the world into the Nuclear Age. The Atomic bomb "Little Boy," a simply constructed "gun bomb," exploded with the force of 12,000 tons of dynamite over the city of Hiroshima, instantly killing 120,000 people. Three days later, "fat man," was dropped over the city of Nagasaki, killing another 80,000 people. In a matter of days, 200,000 people had been wiped off the earth, some of whom were completely vaporized, leaving only a silhouette, burned into the pavement where they stood.
The only use of nuclear weapons during war had lasting effects on the country, and directed foreign policy for the subsequent Cold War. I want to emphasize the confusion and disbelief that the Japanese felt after their surrender and the effects of being occupied by a foreign force after witnessing mythical destruction caused by something they did not entirely understand. First, I want to look at the reaction immediately after the bomb in the U.S. (NOTE: These are all excepts from a paper I wrote about the bomb.)
The U.S. Perspective
Americans, along with social liberals, garnered a general anxiety about the condition of the post-war world. Liberals had their suspicions of the legitimacy of the scientific approach to the new weapon. They became highly critical of government policy regarding the testing of nuclear weapons in the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, and the displacement of the native culture. They saw the tests as a “portent of future nuclear horrors – a grim replication of Hiroshima in the name of scientific inquiry.” Readers and editors of the The New Yorker castigated science for unleashing the powerful destruction of the atom. This acted as detraction from the mainstream media’s belief in the positive results of atomic science. Scientists were caricatured as goofy, disconnected geniuses who found enjoyment in formulas and research with a total lack of knowledge of the implications of their fun. The magazine’s emphasis on the inevitability and intractability of a nuclear state and the need for a moral cleansing came to a head with the publishing of John Hersey’s Hiroshima.
Published in The New Yorker one year after the dropping of the first atomic bombs, John Hersey’s Hiroshima vividly visualized and personalized the legacies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hiroshima chronicles the stories of six survivors, whose everyday lives and responsibilities are interrupted by a “blinding flash of light and succeeding blast.” The descriptions that Hersey provided gave readers a first hand account of the personal horrors that an ordinary person (like the reader) faced once the bomb had been dropped. Hersey’s descriptions of “charred death” and the smell rotting corpses that pervaded the city in the hours and days after the explosion were complemented by surreal environmental descriptions of “fires, windstorms, huge radioactive raindrops and eerie, dusty darkness." Here is an exceprt from Hiroshima:
"...hundred and hundreds who were fleeing, and every one of them seemed to be hurt in some way. The eyebrows of some were burned off and skin hung from their faces and hands…Some were vomiting and they walked. Many were naked or in shreds of clothing"
The dramatic descriptions of the horrors that each individual faced gave the bomb and its aftermath and human dimension. This acted as a counterpoint the mostly antiseptic descriptions of the bombing that were made public. The book also conveyed a sense of guilt and remorse over the dropping of the bomb. Hersey also offered a very controversial view of science. He viewed the atomic bomb and its use as a perverse experiment, with the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as the test subjects. The bomb had soiled the name of science and the scientists behind creating it. While most of American did not share Hersey’s biting criticism, the book became widely read and it helped spread awareness of the potential of the bomb.
Japanese Perspective
Japanese culture and tradition was badly damaged by the end of the war. The "no surrender" mentality bolstered by the Cult of the Emperor as a god amongst men was completely shattered. The idea that Japan could be occupied by a western force was anathema to their prideful and stoic society. The fact that the Emperor himself surrendered to the western power was even more culturally damaging than the actual loss of life sustained during the war. I am going to represent this confusion and loss of pride through a pop cultural medium: film. More specifically, the movie Godjira (Godzilla).
The legacy of Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the surrender to a western power was kept alive in Japan, in part, by the mythic destruction of a giant lizard. Godjira (Godzilla) was not created in a historical vacuum. It was spawned from a “primordial soup of political concerns, cultural influences, cinematic inspirations, genre traditions, economic crassness, simple opportunism and sheer creativity.”
Even though the post-Imperial Japanese government declared the post-war era to be over by 1956, the memory of the atomic bomb, firebombing and the death and destruction that followed left long-lasting emotional and physical scars. Families were torn apart and the principle of honor that the Japanese society placed great emphasis on was bruised by the surrender to and occupation by a western power. Even though the occupation force has left by 1952, cities were still being rebuilt and the victims were still dying from radiation poisoning from the Bomb. The Cold War arms race played into global tension especially in Japan, because of its first hand experience with the effects of the bomb. To exacerbate the increasing Japanese-United States diplomatic tensions, in March of 1954, the U.S. tested a hydrogen bomb in the Bikini Atoll that gave nearby Japanese fisherman on the Luck Dragon No. 5 radiation poisoning and contaminated their supply of tuna. Dubbed Operation “Castle Bravo,” the bomb that was believed to be 6 megatons, exploded with the force of 15 megatons, increasing blast radius and the radioactive cloud.
It became no coincidence that creator/director Tanaka Tomoyuki observed that “the theme of the film [Godjira] was the terror of the Bomb…mankind had created the Bomb, and now nature was going to take revenge on mankind.” The movie begins with a reference to the Lucky Dragon incident: A group of fisherman on the Glory No. 5 see a blinding flash from the sea, which immediately engulfs their ship into flames. The survivors of the incident describe the occurrence as a large explosion emanating from the sea. In another scene, some commuters on a train are discussing the government’s ban on tuna and the contamination of the tuna supply.
This is an overt reference to the actual announcement by the Japanese government to boycott tuna over the Lucky Dragon incident, which they believed to be the second nuclear attack on the people of Japan.
The historical symbolism only seems to increase once the movie progresses beyond Godjira’s initial appearance. Later in the film, a cheesy love triangle is revealed. The female lead, Emiko, who is betrothed to the recluse Dr. Serizawa, falls in love with the war hero Lieutenant Ogata. Serizawa is introduced as a mad-scientist type character, with an eye patch and a pension for clutter and dark spaces. This is an obvious reference to the idea that science had become perverted and reclusive with the advent of the Bomb. Serizawa, ignoring Emiko’s attempts to express her love for Ogata, decides to show her his newest invention. He drops his device into a fish tank and the fish inside instantly dissolve into skeletons. Serizawa describes the device as an “Oxygen Destroyer” and that it could be stronger than any atomic bomb.
Meanwhile, Godjira is wreaking havoc on the industries, infrastructure and people of Tokyo burning down buildings with radioactive fire breath reminiscent of the firebombing that had occurred only 10 years earlier. The images that came out of the attack on Tokyo harkens back to the pictures of death and destruction from Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Men, women and children running from the fiery destruction of something that is almost mythical in nature. A giant irradiated lizard had held as much legitimacy as an atomic bomb to those who were witnesses of the Bomb’s effects. Throughout the movie, there are scenes of overflowing hospitals and people slowly dying of radiation sickness.
By the end of the movie, the creators took the moral high ground. Once revealed that Serizawa has a weapon that could destroy Godjira, Ogata and Emiko are sent to his laboratory to attain it. Serizawa shows opposition, making an obvious political jab:
“If the Oxygen Destroyer is even used once, politicians from around the world will see it. Of course they will want to use it as a weapon. Bombs versus bombs, missiles versus missiles and now a super- weapon to throw upon us all! As a scientist, as a human being, I cannot let this happen.” (Godjira)
After burning his notes and vowing never to use the oxygen destroyer again, Serizawa goes with Ogata and Emiko to find Godjira. They swim down to his lair, lay the weapon and Ogata swims back up. But, burning his notes was not enough, as Serizawa bids everyone goodbye and cuts his oxygen line, killing himself and taking his knowledge of the oxygen destroyer to the grave.
Godjira was presented with no moral ambiguity. After passing through Hiroshima after the war, co-creator Honda Ishiro noted that the movie was created to “make radiation visible” by “giving a tangible form to unspoken fears of the Bomb, nuclear testing and radiation.” Radiation was not depicted as something mysterious or scientific, but instead a destructive force that, once unleashed, causes insurmountable damage to humankind. Godjira was created to tell the rest of the Cold War world that the splitting of the atom was a dangerous power and the horrors that would come from nuclear war should be avoided at all costs.
Japan’s position as only playing a bit part in the Cold War as well as being the test subject fore the Bomb allowed the creators of Godjira to analyze with an especially legitimate, authentic and experienced mind, the fear of nuclear annihilation.
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