'Godzilla' and 'Godzilla Raids Again'
Godzilla (1954) wasn’t the first film starring a prehistoric beast stirred to action by atomic tests. That distinction goes to an American picture, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), whose success prompted Toho studio to make its own monster. But another source of American inspiration struck the Japanese filmmakers more profoundly—the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the H-bomb tests in the Pacific, blamed for infecting Japanese fishermen and fish stock.
For Godzilla’s screenplay, Toho turned to Shigeru Kayama, a popular writer of mystery, science fiction and adventure stories. Most accounts of Godzilla focus on director Ishiro Honda, and while many hands tinkered with the screenplay (as in Hollywood), “the story of Godzilla’s birth is woefully incomplete unless one considers Kayama’s critically important contribution.”
So writes Jeffrey Angles, translator and commentator of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again, Kayama’s original novel and sequel. Incredibly, given the impact of Kayama’s atom age fable, the newly published book is the first English language translation. Angles carefully examines the author’s word choices, trying to capture the sonic aspects of written Japanese (“Whoooo, whoooo, whoooo”) and the archaic nature of the creature’s name (“a clear hint that there is something divine about the monster”).
Toho toned down Kayama’s potentially anti-American implications. But in the introduction to his 1955 Godzilla novel, Kayama strongly states that his intention is to awaken the world to the danger of atomic weapons. What follows is pulp fiction of a high order, with descriptive prose and a message propelled by a sense of adventure.
Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again is published by University of Minnesota Press.
