The True Art of The Monster: Godzilla
I will generally refuse to sit and watch a movie for an hour and a half, let alone three. However, I have a considerable interest in apocalyptic fiction. So when my dad asked if I wanted to view the newest Godzilla movie with him, I reluctantly accepted. At the time, I had not seen a single Godzilla movie, and I didn't know much despite the fact that he's a gigantic reptile-like monster wreaking havoc. As I watched, I was compelled by the plot of this particular movie and the concept of Godzilla itself. I immediately went home to research the origins of the infamous creature; based in Japan, this movie portrayed Godzilla emerging from hibernation near the end of World War 2. Godzilla has an atomic, fiery, blue breath that wipes out cities at a time and gains its power through radioactive surges. Even after knowing this, I hadn't quite yet made the correlation between World War 2 and Godzilla, besides the fact that the situation was "fitting" for this plot.
My hyper-fixational research on this creature was put to a halt for quite some time until a specific moment during my U.S. History class when we were learning about the United States' war crimes in Japan during the Second World War. This moment was the first time I had realized the full extent of the detonation of the first-ever atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These events were a turning point in the world, in warfare and technology. The age of nuclear war had begun. Before this, Japan's citizens lived through a period of rapid modernization, industrialization, and economic prosperity. The tragically fatal ambush of this atomic attack devastated Japan and its citizens. Whatever feelings of nationalistic sentiment amongst the people of Japan now withered away, and the heart of their nation had and will never entirely recover from these attacks. Being able to truly grasp the degree of the deplorable impacts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki beyond the eye made me spiral back to my interest in the seemingly intentless Godzilla.
In this particular moment, the symbolic portrayal of Godzilla came together in my head like a jigsaw, and everything suddenly fell into place. I realized that Godzilla was not just any arbitrary monster as I had once believed. Godzilla is an entity that represents nuclear war, an entity resembling the United States warfare, an entity that symbolizes the disastrous and wretched actions of The United States on Japan. Godzilla represents a destructor and an awakening of global nuclear destruction. Godzilla is a metaphor for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, possibly awakening more and more nuclear havoc. Godzilla is an amalgamated metaphor for the inflaming terror of Japanese citizens. The overwhelming clarity from this recognition was a true full-circle moment. Who knew something as sinister as Godzilla could have a remarkable and perpetual meaning?
This moment made me realize how much our society fails to humanize the experiences of the people who have lived through these infamous devastations only because the damage did not directly impact us. I recognized that when conceptualizing and learning about historical events, we fail to empathize with the living beings affected. We only see these people as numbers or statistics when, frankly, they are victims whose lives and families were ripped away from them forever. The bundled emotions provoked by the shocking and out-of-control events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are even symbolized through apparently meaningless Hollywood films that are screened to this day, such as The Godzilla movie. I'm certain that many other people, such as myself, have also missed this movie's central message. That message being the fear from the people of Japan that they may have to suffer again.
Inside the classroom, I have gained more empathy for situations such as these. I have learned to truly humanize the experience of people who have suffered fatalities and recognize my gratuity for that I have and will never experience being a victim of war. Overall, I have also learned that all art has a complex and profound meaning underneath its surface, even if it is just the monster Godzilla.
You can read more about it on the Stony Brook University essay competition page.