WEBVTT

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Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Patrick
Woodward and I'm Gillian Woodward. Spotlight uses

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a special English method of broadcasting.
It is easier for people to understand no

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matter where in the world they live. In the darkness, you hear the

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footsteps of the creature before you see
it. The windows of the buildings shake

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and crack. Suddenly it appears,
a huge creature, as tall as the

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tallest towers. Its cry splits the
night. Its backbone glows with a purple

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light. Energy shoots out from its
mouth, slicing the buildings in half.

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Godzilla has returned to Japan. Godzilla
is one of the most famous monsters of

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the history of film. Pictured sometimes
as an evil force and sometimes a hero.

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Godzilla is always a force of ruin, but the roaring monster makes a

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film fun. But the huge beast
also shows the fears of those who created

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him. Today's spotlight is on Godzilla, the greatest monster of the movies.

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Three men created Godzilla. They worked
for Toho, a Japanese film studio,

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in nineteen fifty four. Their names
were Ishi ro Honda, Takio Murata,

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and Tomi Yuki Tanaka. Tomi Yuki
Tanaka the producer of the project, originally

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planned for the film to be a
typical monster film, usually a frightening creatures

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that people must fight. Usually the
people kill the monster or drive it away.

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But with director Ishio Honda's vision,
this monster film became something more.

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He and his co writer Takeyo Murata
made the film into a metaphor of something

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more important. A metaphor is a
creative comparison describing something that shares the same

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qualities with something else. Godzilla became
a metaphor for the tragedy and horror of

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nuclear weapons. Honda was no stranger
to these weapons, nor was Japan.

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In nineteen forty five, Japan was
at war against the United States and its

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allies. This war, called World
War Two, had been going on for

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many years. Hundreds of thousands of
people had died. On the sixth and

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again on ninth of August, the
United States dropped two nuclear weapons on Hiroshima

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and Nagasaki. These bombs immediately destroyed
these two major Japanese cities. The explosion

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killed tens of thousands of people.
The radiation from these bombs also poisoned many

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more. The ruin was terrible.
The Japanese could do nothing to stop this

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powerful weapon. Their government surrendered soon
afterward the war was over. Ishiro Hoonda

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was an unwilling soldier in that war. He spoke to the magazine Newsweek about

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the experience that would shape his film. I was coming back from the war.

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The army was returning from our final
defeat. We passed through Hiroshima.

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Back then, it was says that
for the next seventy two years, nous

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who'd grow there. That picture really
stayed with me. So I have a

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kind of hatred of nuclear weapons.
Honda's hatred of nuclear weapons shaped the plot

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of the first Godzilla movie. It
also included another real life event involving nuclear

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weapons called the Diigo Fukuru Maru incident. During this incident, the Japanese fishing

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ship Diigo Fukuru Maru was fishing for
tuna near the Marshall Islands in the Western

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Pacific. Near those islands, the
United States secretly was testing a new nuclear

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weapon. The ship was fishing in
a place that should have been safely outside

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of the testing zone, but this
bomb was much more powerful than expected.

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It sent clouds of radioactive fallout into
the wind. The dust and ash in

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the radioactive clouds fell on the Diigo
Fukuru Marow. The radioactive fallout from this

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nuclear test poisoned the ship's crew.
Several crew members died within a few weeks,

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and those who did not die immediately
had permanent disabilities. Later, many

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of those men died from cancer caused
by the radiation. The Diigo Fukurio Marrow

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incident directly influenced Godzilla's creators. The
film even begins with fishermen disappearing. Nuclear

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testing changes Godzilla into a radioactive monster. Ehiji Tsuburaya was the film's special effects

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artist. He designed Godzilla. He
made the monster's skin look like the skin

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of the survivors of the nuclear attacks
from World War II. Much of the

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film shows Godzilla attacking Japan. The
damage is like destruction of an atomic bomb,

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but Godzilla is also victim. His
unstoppable anger also comes from his own

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pain caused by the atomic bomb.
Godzilla also differed from other monster films in

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many ways. Most of these films
concentrate on the monster and the destruction it

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causes. Godzilla does this too,
but most of the film concentrates on people's

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experience of Godzilla's destruction. In one
part, the film shows a mother crying,

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telling her children that they all will
die, but that they will be

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with their father who died before.
As she speaks, Godzilla comes ever closer

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to their hiding place. In another, a doctor knows a child that she

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is treating has been poisoned by radiation. There is nothing that she can do

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to help her. These parts purposely
match events after the bombing of Hiroshima and

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Nagasaki. John Rako Roberto was an
American Godzilla expert. In his study of

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the effects of the atomic bomb on
Japanese culture, he wrote, Godzilla was

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hidden as a normal Hollywood style monster
film, but it made Japan and finally

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the world, experience the bombings of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki all over again. The

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movie Godzilla was a huge success on
its release. It set a box office

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record in Tokyo. Reviews of the
film were mixed, but the movie was

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very popular because so many people came
to see it. It became the eighth

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most profitable film in Japan that year. In the next few years, the

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movie was shown in Germany and the
United States. However, these films were

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changed a lot. These did not
include much of the original movies anti war

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message. These also removed the nuclear
weapons. In the United States, the

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title was changed to Godzilla, King
of the Monsters, but more people watched

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the film in the United States than
in Japan. The international showings of the

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movie helped solidify Godzilla's popularity. The
Toho Film Studio capitalized on this popularity,

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releasing five more Godzilla films in the
next ten years. In these films,

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Godzilla is still a force of destruction, but he slowly turns into a hero

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who fights other monsters that threatened the
earth and its people. Some films were

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more about the fights between these monsters
than being a symbol for anything, but

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they still considered Japanese attitudes at the
time, like a growing feeling of teamwork

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between Japan and other nations. Is
Shiro Honder directed many of these later Godzilla

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films. He spoke to Newsweek about
this period. Of these films, in

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parts with international meetings, I always
show people from the Soviet Union and other

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countries. They helped the Japanese government
with a problem it faces. That kind

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of assistance somehow became the subject of
these sorts of films. Corporation or working

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together is the most important subject.
As time went on, Godzilla became a

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friendly monster. Recent films such as
the American made Godzilla X con The New

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Empire followed this example. Here he
is a force of nature that protects the

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earth from outside danger, but Godzilla
still has the to show the fears of

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the Japanese people. In twenty sixteen, Toho released a new film called Shin

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Godzilla. Shin Godzilla was influenced by
the tsunami, a huge wave caused by

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an earthquake that hit Japan in twenty
eleven. The tsunami caused the Fukushima nuclear

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power plant to melt down, releasing
radiation into the environment. In the film,

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Godzilla is a slow moving monster changed
by radiation poisoning. The monster is

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a danger, but much of the
film is about how government officials fail to

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address the problem. The movie shows
the danger of a natural tragedy, but

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it is also about the dangers of
a slow moving government. Today, Godzilla

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is the longest running film series of
all time, with thirty eight movies completed

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and more to be released. He
is one of Japan's most well known creations.

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He made people want to make other
monster films and video games, but

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Godzilla will always be more than just
another monster. He shows both the fears

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and joys that all people experience.
In that way, we are a part

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of Godzilla. Our experiences and expectations
make him one of the greatest monsters of

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all time. Have you ever seen
a Godzilla film? Which film was your

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favorite? You can leave a comment
on our website or email us at Radio

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at Radio English dot net. You
can also comment on Facebook at Facebook dot

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com slash Spotlight Radio. This program
is called Godzilla the Greatest Monster. The

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writer of this program was Dan Christman. The producer was Mitcheo Osaki. The

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voices you heard were from the United
Kingdom. All quotes were adapted this program

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and voiced by Spotlight. You can
listen to this program again and read it

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on the internet at www dot Radio
English dot net. You can also get

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our programs delivered directly to your Android
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