After World War Two, the Japanese government was left without any ability to protect itself. It’s new relationship with the U.S. had allowed them to create the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) although they were widely understood to be incapable of handling any serious situation.

Godzilla (1954) is set within this era, and addresses the issues of military response (or lack thereof). Japan had agreed to a treaty in which they would never be able to participate in or have the potential to participate in any war or conflict. It became clear however, that Japan wouldn’t be sustainable without any form of protection. As such, the SDF was created. Within the film, we see Godzilla and our characters interact with this same ineffective self defense team.

Ishiro Honda makes his militaristic critiques very clear. The Japanese SDF are humiliated within the film. Their attacks on Godzilla fail spectacularly in every aspect. It mirrors the real truth that the equipment and forces Japan has are not enough to protect Japan from any real threat. To Honda, This area of limbo for Japan would be an unsustainable position.

Dr. Serizawa in the film is the representation of films moral center. His act of heroism is separate from the identity of the state. His action is to destroy his weapon, the “Oxygen Destroyer”, before it can be used to cause more harm and destruction. It contradicts the idea that more weapons and further development in that field could lead to peace and instead promotes the idea that people have a responsibility to keep and maintain peace when they can.

Serizawa’s character is a critique of the military as a whole. Where a military force failed, he managed to succeed. The frustration of the military’s passive response to growing issues in the time of Godzilla release created the need for a moral character who won separate from the SDF.

The film critiques the U.S.’s policy on Japan’s right to self defense. A force that can barely manage it’s own people can’t manage any potential larger threats, especially those growing during the growing concerns of the Cold War. Godzilla, a nuclear force, terrorizes Japan without real resistance due to an incapable system, created by the Americans.

References

• Purdy, Roger W. 1995. Sensō: The Japanese Remember the Pacific War. Edited by Frank Gibney. Translated by Beth Cary, N.Y., Armonk: East Gate.
• Lucken, Michael, 2017, The Japanese and the War, Translated by Karen Grimwade, Columbia University Press.
• Wilkinson, James D., “Remembering World War II: The Perspective of the Losers,” The American Scholar 54, no. 3 (1985): 342, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41211599.
• Johnston, Alexander, “Altered States: Structural Change in Contemporary International Relations,” Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory, no. 76 (1990): 56, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41801498.