The fictional monster Godzilla was created by Tomuyuki Tanaka post the atomic bombings and testings to symbolize nuclear weapons themselves.
Being an avid follower of Godzilla since childhood, I have always been fascinated by this massive monster and its wide range of abilities. Recently, I was going through its general anatomy—how it’s a product of radiation, how it feeds and emits radiation and how it has powers like ‘atomic breath’. Godzilla, as a character, is centered around nuclear radiation. I was aware that Godzilla was created by Tomuyuki Tanaka in Japan, in the year 1954. But at some point, the historic dates of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1945) struck me and a question presented itself: was Godzilla a cultural tool in the representation of the Japanese experience of nuclear radiation and its after effects?
Who is Godzilla?
Godzilla is a fictional monster, part of the Japanese Kaiju universe. Kaiju is the Japanese word for ‘strange beast’, and this universe encompasses many other fictional monsters.

A statue of Godzilla (Photo Credit: Knot Mirai / Shutterstock)
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A quick look into its anatomy reveals multiple features that resemble dinosaurs, from the scales on its body and its short hands, to the scales on its back that can be equated to those of a Stegosaurus.

An illustration of a Stegosaurus (Photo Credit: Warpaint / Shutterstock)
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
On August 6, 1945, the atomic bomb ‘Little boy’ was detonated over the Japanese city of Hiroshima, and on August 9, 1945, ‘Fat Man’ was detonated over Nagasaki. The detonation of the world’s first two combat-ready atomic bombs was carried out by the Harry Truman-led American government, in an effort to end World War II. The Japanese Imperial army, prior to the bombings, had vowed to fight relentlessly without displaying any signs of a willingness to surrender. Despite the thousands of casualties that the bombs led to within seconds of their detonation, the aftermath led to radiation sickness, poisoning, genetic changes in progeny and an extensive amount of change brought about by nuclear radiation in general. However, the wake of these detonations, although horrifying for Japanese culture, was not the ultimate motivator for the creation of Godzilla.
Lucky Dragon Number 5
After the end of the second world war, the arms race began. The two superpowers (the United States and the USSR ) had locked horns to stockpile nuclear weapons and were desperate to emerge as the dominant power. An aspect of this stockpiling was testing the nuclear weapons after they were made. In 1954, for example, the United States tested the thermonuclear bomb ‘Castle Bravo‘ off of the Marshall islands. The United States had issued two reports regarding the danger zone of the bomb, one in 1952 and the second in 1953, in which they expanded the range of the danger zone. A Japanese fishing boat by the name of Daigo Fukuryū Maru/ Lucky Dragon No. 5 was 80 miles away from the east coast of the Marshall islands. The captain of the boat was not aware of the expansion of the danger zone declared in 1953, and the boat was fishing in the waters near the thermonuclear test site.
A doctor inspecting the amount of radiation sickness one of the crew members of the boat has. One of the symptoms of radiation sickness is the falling out of hair (Photo Credit: Wikimedia)
The cultural birth of Godzilla
So how does all of this lead to Godzilla? Tomuyuki Tanaka (the creator of Godzilla) was flying over the pacific in 1954, after the events of the Castle Bravo test. It is said that as he looked below at the ocean, the idea of a creature emerging from the ocean bed struck him. And so, in 1954, the movie Gojira was released, in which the monster, Godzilla was awakened from his slumber due to all the hydrogen bomb testings being carried out. Once awakened, Godzilla is unstoppable and lays waste to Tokyo and many surrounding regions with its huge stature and atomic breath.

An illustration of Godzilla destroying the city (Photo Credit: ArifinArt / Shutterstock)
Conclusion
The Godzilla franchise has taken a sharp turn since its inception. After it was imported to Hollywood, a large part of the new films had themes like Godzilla fighting other monsters and Godzilla being depicted as an ‘anti-hero’. The name ‘King of the Monsters’ was also given to Godzilla by Hollywood.

A still from the movie, Godzilla Raids Again depicting Godzilla (right) fighting Anguirus. (Photo Credit: Wikimedia)