November 3, 1954 –
Gojira premiered in Japan on this date 71 years ago. (Godzilla: King of the Monsters debuted in America on April 26, 1956.)
With the ashes of World War II only recently cooled, Japan is plagued by a sudden wave of maritime disasters: without warning, ships are bursting into flames and sinking beneath the waves. The few survivors offer little insight, as they quickly succumb to radiation and strange burns. (Hmm, sound familiar?) A group of investigators, including prominent paleontologist Dr. Yamane are sent to Odo Island to investigate. The natives warn that the ships are being destroyed by Gojira (Godzilla), These claims are confirmed when a gigantic, dinosaur-like creature comes ashore and demolishes the village. Dr. Yamane concludes that Godzilla is a prehistoric creature awakened and mutated by atomic bomb tests. It’s exactly the conclusion you’d come to after stumbling upon the smoldering ruins of a Japanese fishing village.
The military responds with depth charges, but the attack is unsuccessful—and Godzilla follows the ships back to Tokyo Bay. (Again, probably just what you’d do—poke the giant radioactive monster.) Coming ashore at night, Godzilla razes Tokyo. The destruction in his wake is eerily comparable to that of an atomic bomb. Military firepower proves utterly ineffective. It is feared that Godzilla will continue his rampage, destroying the cities of Japan—and perhaps the entire world.
It falls to Emiko Yamane (Dr. Yamane’s daughter) to convince her former fiancé, Dr. Serizawa, to use his Oxygen Destroyer against Godzilla. Serizawa is torn; he fears his terrible invention may prove more dangerous than the monster itself. In the end, he chooses to make the ultimate sacrifice to rid the world of Godzilla.
So, in a nutshell, you have the greatest fever dream of a movie—and a dire warning about nuclear proliferation.
(We take Godzilla very seriously in our home.)
The Haus of Dcaligari 
