Godzilla Past and Present: Reflections on Godzilla’s Post-War and Present-Day Significance

Free Talk Event
September 26, 2024

We will continue celebrating Godzilla’s 70^th year anniversary. There will be two special talks by renowned academics followed by Lucky Door Prize* including a double ticket to Japanese Film Festival 2024 and finish the celebration with Godzilla themed cupcakes.

*Prizes are given to onsite attendees only.

Godzilla as History: Hope and Anxiety in Early 1950s Japan

Released in late 1954, Godzilla is a gripping sci-fi classic in which a radiation-breathing reptilian monster threatens to destroy a panic-stricken Tokyo. Godzilla’s terrifying content played a large role in the film’s box office success, but so too did the skilful ways that Godzilla appealed to the hopes and anxieties of the Japanese people in the early 1950s. Indeed, from our perspective today, Godzilla endures as a kind of historical “time capsule,” providing a fascinating insight into the zeitgeist of Japan at a critical historical watershed. This talk looks at how aspects of the plot, characters, and imagery in the original Godzilla reflect the emotions, anxieties, and hopes among Japanese viewers in the early 1950s. It discusses how Godzilla simultaneously incorporated traumatic memories of the past, fears of nuclear destruction in the Cold War present, youthful dreams about romance and love, and patriotic aspirations for Japan as a technological and economic nation.

Topics to be covered

Nuclear anxiety and Godzilla
America and Godzilla
War memory and Godzilla
Love and romance and Godzilla
Technology and Godzilla

PROF SIMON AVENELL

Simon Avenell is a professor at the Australian National University. He focuses on modern Japan, with a particular interest in the social, political, and intellectual history of the postwar era. His books include Making Japanese Citizens (California, 2010), Transnational Japan in the Global Environmental Movement (Hawaii, 2017), and Asia and Postwar Japan: Deimperialization, Civic Activism, and National Identity (Harvard, 2022). He is currently editing The Handbook of Japanese Civil Society with Akihiro Ogawa (AUP, 2024), finalizing a comprehensive history of postwar Japan (Hawaii 2025), and working on a project about youth and generations in contemporary Japan.

Godzilla: A Fascination with the Monstrous

Alongside icons like Hello Kitty and Pokémon, Godzilla, the oldest of them all, has become a symbol of Japanese popular culture both domestically and internationally. This talk examines Godzilla’s lasting appeal and cultural significance, particularly through the lens of two recent adaptations, Shin Godzilla (2016) and Godzilla Minus One (2023), both of which have achieved significant box office success. What accounts for Godzilla’s continued popularity? By looking at these recent retellings and Godzilla’s influence beyond the screen, this talk will investigate the connection between this nearly immortal kaiju and the society that gave rise to it. Godzilla represents a complex, ambiguous and multifaceted icon—serving as a victim, a destroyer, a protector, a mythical figure from folklore, and a creation of modern technology—embodying Japan’s ongoing struggles, desires, and potential anxieties related to peace and progress. In this way, Godzilla may offer insights into aspects of Japanese society, history, and national identity.

Topics to be covered

Japanese popular culture
Modern Japanese society
Tradition and progress
Visual culture
Fantasy

DR MASAFUMI MONDEN

Masafumi Monden is a Lecturer in Japanese Studies at the University of Sydney. He writes and teaches on modern Japanese cultural history, fashion, art and popular culture, gender studies, Japanese language, and international relations focusing on Australia’s ties with Asia. He is currently working on two projects: a collaborative project on Japanese shōjo culture and its cross-cultural influences, and a sole-authored book project on the cultural history of the fashioned body, focusing on its ties to visual and consumer culture, the intertwined histories of race, aging, technology, and the dissemination of bodily aesthetics and gender ideals within the modern Japanese imagination.

This is the second day of the talk event, Celebrating Godzilla: 70 Years of the Iconic King of the Monsters.