Two 'Godzilla' Scifi Novellas Finally Get English Translations, Capturing 1950s Horror at Nuclear Weapons (ourculturemag.com) 28
Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again — two novellas based on Toho's first two Godzilla movies — were finally published in an English translation this month.
Both were written by science fiction author Shigeru Kayama, "who also penned the original scenarios from which the films in question were based," according to Our Culture magazine. And the book's translator calls Kayama both "a figure who is a little bit like Philip K. Dick in this country" and "the key person who developed the contours of the Godzilla story. I think it is no exaggeration to say that he perhaps the closest to being Godzilla's real father than anyone else. Without him, the monster we have today wouldn't exist." The original Godzilla film is a deeply powerful, mournful film that isn't just about a big monster stomping on buildings. It is a serious reflection on Japan's nuclear fears during the Cold War, which left it caught between heavily armed superpowers. Japan recognized that radioactive weapons of mass destruction being developed by the U.S. and U.S.S.R were threats that had the power to suddenly emerge and destroy its citizens and cities at any moment — like Godzilla. We should remember that in the film, it was hydrogen bomb testing in the Pacific that disturbed Godzilla, who then took revenge for his destroyed habitat by trampling Tokyo and blasting it with atomic rays...
Interestingly, in the novellas that I've translated, Kayama sometimes restored elements that the director and his assistants removed in the moviemaking process. Perhaps the most noticeable one is that in the scenario, Kayama wanted to begin with a long voice-over that talks directly about the horrors of atomic and hydrogen bombs. He envisioned that as the voice was speaking, the screen would show images from historical footage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as images of the tremendously unlucky (and ironically named) fishing vessel Lucky Dragon No. 5, which accidentally found itself in the path of an H-bomb test in the South Pacific in early 1954. (The horrific fate of this boat directly inspired the producer at Toho Studios to make the film.)
However, the director of the film, Ishiro Honda, and his assistant who helped with the screenplay both felt that this kind of direct commentary was too direct for a popular film, and so they toned down the "protest" element in the story. It's clear that they, like Kayama, wanted Godzilla to serve as a monstrous embodiment of radiation and all of the destruction that it could bring, but they also didn't point fingers at the U.S. military which had dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and was busily developing even more horrifying weapons. After all, the U.S.S.R. had built its own arsenal, and so nuclear weapons no longer belonged to a single country — the threat was broader than that. Plus, protest films rarely attracted a big, popular following. So, Honda and his crew toned down the outspoken language and imagery, but there was still imagery left enough for viewers in 1954 to recall Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Lucky Dragon. Interestingly, when Kayama published the novellas, he included an author preface that talks about the anti-nuclear movement and encourages readers to read Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again as his contribution to that movement.
Next the translator hopes to create an English translation of the novel The Luminous Fairies and Mothra.
But for this book, he struggled with how to assign a gender to Godzilla. "Some people feel very viscerally, like the people at Toho studios feel very strongly that Godzilla is an 'it' and not a 'he' or 'she' or 'they,'" he told MovieWeb. "I kind of give my rationale for that choice in the afterward — Kayama thought about Godzilla as a stand-in for the nuclear bomb, and it was men in America who were developing the hydrogen bombs that frightened Japan so much in 1954. So maybe it's perhaps not inappropriate to call Godzilla 'he.'"
Both were written by science fiction author Shigeru Kayama, "who also penned the original scenarios from which the films in question were based," according to Our Culture magazine. And the book's translator calls Kayama both "a figure who is a little bit like Philip K. Dick in this country" and "the key person who developed the contours of the Godzilla story. I think it is no exaggeration to say that he perhaps the closest to being Godzilla's real father than anyone else. Without him, the monster we have today wouldn't exist." The original Godzilla film is a deeply powerful, mournful film that isn't just about a big monster stomping on buildings. It is a serious reflection on Japan's nuclear fears during the Cold War, which left it caught between heavily armed superpowers. Japan recognized that radioactive weapons of mass destruction being developed by the U.S. and U.S.S.R were threats that had the power to suddenly emerge and destroy its citizens and cities at any moment — like Godzilla. We should remember that in the film, it was hydrogen bomb testing in the Pacific that disturbed Godzilla, who then took revenge for his destroyed habitat by trampling Tokyo and blasting it with atomic rays...
Interestingly, in the novellas that I've translated, Kayama sometimes restored elements that the director and his assistants removed in the moviemaking process. Perhaps the most noticeable one is that in the scenario, Kayama wanted to begin with a long voice-over that talks directly about the horrors of atomic and hydrogen bombs. He envisioned that as the voice was speaking, the screen would show images from historical footage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as images of the tremendously unlucky (and ironically named) fishing vessel Lucky Dragon No. 5, which accidentally found itself in the path of an H-bomb test in the South Pacific in early 1954. (The horrific fate of this boat directly inspired the producer at Toho Studios to make the film.)
However, the director of the film, Ishiro Honda, and his assistant who helped with the screenplay both felt that this kind of direct commentary was too direct for a popular film, and so they toned down the "protest" element in the story. It's clear that they, like Kayama, wanted Godzilla to serve as a monstrous embodiment of radiation and all of the destruction that it could bring, but they also didn't point fingers at the U.S. military which had dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and was busily developing even more horrifying weapons. After all, the U.S.S.R. had built its own arsenal, and so nuclear weapons no longer belonged to a single country — the threat was broader than that. Plus, protest films rarely attracted a big, popular following. So, Honda and his crew toned down the outspoken language and imagery, but there was still imagery left enough for viewers in 1954 to recall Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Lucky Dragon. Interestingly, when Kayama published the novellas, he included an author preface that talks about the anti-nuclear movement and encourages readers to read Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again as his contribution to that movement.
Next the translator hopes to create an English translation of the novel The Luminous Fairies and Mothra.
But for this book, he struggled with how to assign a gender to Godzilla. "Some people feel very viscerally, like the people at Toho studios feel very strongly that Godzilla is an 'it' and not a 'he' or 'she' or 'they,'" he told MovieWeb. "I kind of give my rationale for that choice in the afterward — Kayama thought about Godzilla as a stand-in for the nuclear bomb, and it was men in America who were developing the hydrogen bombs that frightened Japan so much in 1954. So maybe it's perhaps not inappropriate to call Godzilla 'he.'"
"Japan's Nuclear Fears During The Cold War" (Score:2)
I want to feel sorry for their fears yet I can't because I know they slaughtered 30 million Chinese in order to earn themselves that award of getting nuked. Just keep making good capacitors and we won't talk about it.
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Didn't son of Godzilla come from an egg laid by Godzilla?
i don't think the origin of the egg was ever given?
Godzilla does seem tp adopt the baby, though.
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Japanese doesn't have gendered pronouns, although there are other things in the language that indicate gender. Godzilla is usually described as male, and Mothra as female. There doesn't seem to be any logic to at all, beyond Mothra being more concerned with protecting a nest and some fairies that worship her, which are considered typically female traits.
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My ancestors conquered or attacked a lot of the world and were pretty shitty to everyone, including the lower classes among their own people.
I don't feel personally responsible for what the British did to China, or India, or the Middle East, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Gambia, Sierra Leone, northwestern Somalia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Nigeria, Ghana, and Malawi, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US, or Mexico. And probably dozens of other places I'd have to look up.
The Japanese of today don'
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My ancestors conquered or attacked a lot of the world and were pretty shitty to everyone, including the lower classes among their own people.
I'm pretty sure everyone reading this can make that statement regardless of their ancestry. Well, with some leeway on "a lot of the world" since before the "age of sail" the world was quite small for everyone.
Those people though - we're getting to a point where they're almost all dead. Japan hasn't conquered or ruled anyone since 1945. If I'm going to have a problem with a Japanese citizen, it's going to be over something a little more recent.
I believe it is because so many of the people from 1945 are dead that Japan is being allowed to grow its military beyond what we in the USA might view as little more than the US Coast Guard. Even that might be a stretch given how little authority and funding was allowed by their ministry of defense,
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>I believe it is because so many of the people from 1945 are dead that Japan is being allowed to grow its military beyond what we in the USA might view as little more than the US Coast Guard.
No, if communist china had become a global threat at an earlier point then Japanese re-arming would have occurred at an earlier point. As we saw with Germany in response to the Soviet threat. As maniacal as Japan was during the war, they quickly became pro-American after the war. This was in part due to the rejection of the militarists who had lied to the people so badly, abused the people so uncaringly, and the realization that the Americans were not the monsters claimed and were treating occupied Japan fa
Hopefully (Score:2)
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Information seeks its own level, and DNA and culture are just kinds of information. Any pocket of humanity that is highly connected to another is sharing information, and given enough time they will blend together.
Whatever exists a few hundred years from now would be very very alien to those of us alive today. Genetically it's looking like we'll mostly be Indian and Chinese, but over long timescales those are just individual percentages - we're all going in the blender. Cultures will merge and split and
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Mechs don't make since to me. Sure power armor does. But once you start getting past the Hulkbuster or Starship Trooper size, it just seems more of a hindrance cause you are presenting a much better target.
Social justice nonsense. (Score:2)
From the fine article:
And very often, Iâ(TM)ve focused on the voices of women, queer, and socially engaged writers since they tend to get short shrift in translation.
What a load of virtue signalling social justice nonsense.
It's rare for works of art to be judged by the attributes of the creator. We might find works like Mein Kampf appalling today because of the acts of the author but I hear it is quite an unreadable pile of words that would have slipped into obscurity if it weren't for the popularity of the author. By "popularity" I don't mean the person was favored by any meaningful portion of the general population, only that people know his na
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What a load of virtue signalling social justice nonsense.
Why is it nonsense to decide to translate works which are unavailble in English because of the authors' viewpoints?
Good art is good art regardless of the source.
So it should follow that art that is unavailable because of of the artist's unpopular views or lifestyle should become more available.
It's an accident of history that so much of the great art we admire today comes from white Christian straight men.
Calling it an "accident" is a bit of an oversimplification. Your *exposure* matters to who you admire. So does your cultural familiarity with an artist and the figure. Those are probably the reasons you don't know about Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, a towering figur
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So it should follow that art that is unavailable because of of the artist's unpopular views or lifestyle should become more available.
Is there any evidence that good art is being hidden from view because of the lifestyle of the artist?
If the views of the artist is unpopular then I expect the art from that artist to be unpopular because it is a reflection of those views, not merely because the artist lived some kind of life that was viewed as shameful, distasteful, or whatever.
To bring things into the less exotic, Ian McKellen game out as gay in 1988 at the age of 49. His sexual orientation was a crime until he was 28 years old, and had he been caught before 1967 you'd never have seen any of his famous performances. And that angle is important even today; it's critical to raise the profile of artists who are thought criminals in their native country.
Actors were poorly received by polite society for many portions of history because it was believed that actors were inherently deceptive people (as they practiced pl
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Is there any evidence that good art is being hidden from view because of the lifestyle of the artist?
Could there be evidence, if nobody translates the work of marginalized artists?
Your example is flawed in that Ian McKellen faces no hardships today from his sexual orientation.
No, my example is to point out that McKellen being able to have a career as an openly gay person is a good thing. If he had been born fifty years earlier; or if he were born in certain countries today [wikipedia.org], he would have to remain closeted or risk severe consequences by living openly as a prominent artist.
One of the things I always thought was kind of sad (Score:2)
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Is that Japan has a huge bookmark it with tons and tons of science fiction that's never going to see foot outside the country because of the complexity and expense of translating it.
That's likely true of many art forms from many sources, including English language art not being seen in Japan.
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One day we might get to the point where machine translation is good enough, but even then I think it's almost impossible for a translation to fully convey those stories.
People joke about fan translations of anime being full of footnotes and cultural explainers, but often that's necessary to really understand them. Commercial translators often re-write parts, especially jokes and puns, to something vaguely similar in English.
Unless you actually understand Japanese culture and some Japanese language, I think
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Exactly! I'd buy that for a dollar!
Godzilla comes from the fear of anything "nukular" (Score:2)
We should not equate nuclear weapons to nuclear power, not any more than we should equate diesel fuel to weapons like napalm or ANFO. If we are to equate nuclear power to the threat nuclear weapons pose then we should balance that with the benefits that nuclear medicine provides, especially since nuclear power has a far closer connection to nuclear medicine than to nuclear weapons.
Godzilla, at least as I recall from the Americanized version shown on TV today, was a commentary on the fear people saw from ra
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