atomic-crusader

[atomic-crusader]

AUGUST 6, 1945

With all the nonsense going on in the US, as well as elsewhere in the world, it might get lost that today is the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan.

Use of nuclear weapons gets tossed about quite loosely these days, especially by idiots like Cheetolini and his ilk, without any real regard for what the actual cost to human beings would be.

I think it should be mandatory for any leader of a country armed with nuclear weapons to tour Hiroshima and its Peace Park. It's a sobering experience, and a reminder of how terrible man's inhumanity to man can be.

I don't care where you fall in the argument about whether dropping the bomb was beneficial in ending the War in the Pacific.

But it's an undisputed fact that the majority of people killed in the bombing, and the subsequent on in Nagasaki, were civilians. They were not combatants on the front lines.

And that will be the case again if these weapons - which are thousands of times more powerful than the ones 80 years ago - are ever used again.

It won't be the leaders who caused the war. It won't be the demagogues calling for the annihilation of the "enemy."

It will be ordinary people like you and me.

photos by me

[atomic-crusader]

everyone shut up. look at how cool shadow is

[atomic-crusader]

"Cease This Darkness Killing Me" It's been raining a lot

[atomic-crusader]

Summer Of Godzilla!

Godzilla vs King Ghidorah By Thomas Johnson

[atomic-crusader]

Summer Of Godzilla!

Godzilla vs Mecha King Ghidorah By Pablo Olivera

[atomic-crusader]

The Hiroshima Survivor Who Drew Godzilla

The original Godzilla film was made by survivors of World War II, and they poured the nightmares they witnessed into a monster still pointing up the folly of man 70 years later. But while special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya took refuge in a bomb shelter as Tokyo burned again and again, and director Ishiro Honda’s train passed through the ruins of Hiroshima on his long journey home from China, none of the cast or crew are known to have been survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which loom over the film and (to wildly varying degrees) the franchise as a whole. I am aware of only one person involved with the Godzilla series who was a hibakusha: Keiji Nakazawa, who adapted Son of Godzilla for the manga magazine Shoenen in January 1968.

Nakazawa was in first grade when the U.S. dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima. He lived only because he happened to be standing behind a concrete wall of his school. His father and younger siblings burned alive in the wreckage of their house; the child his mother bore that same day died soon after. As a young mangaka, he avoided talking about his horrific experience personally or professionally until his mother’s death in 1966. Following cremation, he was stunned to find her bones had all crumbled into powder, so weakened were they by exposure to radiation. He began reflecting on the culture of silence in Japan about the atomic bombings and started work on Struck by Black Rain, set in postwar Hiroshima, almost immediately. It proved a hard sell, and Son of Godzilla was one of several adaptations (Gamera vs. Gyaos and Ultraseven were others) that Nakazawa worked on to make ends meet until Manga Punch finally bought it.

Like virtually all Godzilla manga, Son of Godzilla has never been translated into English, officially or otherwise, so I can only offer a few visual observations. Nakazawa squeezes the film’s basic events into 32 pages; with a small cast and a single island as the setting, it seems to survive the process better than most entries in the series would. He doesn’t mention in his 1994 autobiography what he made of that story, which involves an errant weather control experiment bathing the island in radioactive, mantis-mutating rain and Godzilla, scourge of Japan, becoming a dad, but one minor deviation from the film stands out. When the Radioactivity Sonde explodes, the flash plays across the scientists’ faces. Here’s that panel paired with Little Boy’s detonation in Nakazawa’s autobiographical one-shot I Saw It:

On a lighter note, Minilla becomes a far more spirited character in Nakazawa’s hands, an imp dodging swings from the Kamacuras moments after he’s born. He even rescues Maki and Saeko from Kumonga. The tradeoff is that he has less of a relationship with Godzilla; the famous scene where the tyke learns how to fire atomic breath is omitted, and while Minilla has no trouble producing a fiery ray, Godzilla reduces Kumonga to bubbling goo by himself. Even their final scene is less personal, with Minilla riding on Godzilla’s back instead of them embracing as the snow piles up. At the time, Nakazawa was mostly writing boys’ adventure stories, and this approach definitely shows it.

Nakazawa’s most famous work, Barefoot Gen, built on I Saw It, following young Gen Nakaoka (a thinly-veiled version of Nakazawa) from 1945 to 1953. Embraced by peace activists, it was the first multivolume manga translated into English. I’m in the process of reading it and found the first volume in particular uniquely distressing. After the first Godzilla was completed, Honda concluded it was better off for his failure to completely achieve the realism he had aimed for, that there was a distance between the monster’s rampages and the actual war. No such mercy with Barefoot Gen—this is the first nuclear attack as it happened, Nakazawa’s cartoonish, kid-friendly style only making it more disturbing.

80 years later, most of the hibakusha, including Nakazawa, are gone. Nuclear weapons are not. On the contrary, many nuclear powers are expanding and modernizing their arsenals, and their aggression towards non-nuclear powers inevitably forces them to consider their own deterrents. That this is happening as the obliteration of two Japanese cities fades from living memory feels especially dangerous. But the words and the art of the survivors remain for those willing to seek them out. I’ve heard a lot of talk lately, as free expression online comes under attack from all directions, about the importance of fiction that aims to unsettle. Today is a good day to be uncomfortable.

[atomic-crusader]

– Rick Sardinha

Skullport

[atomic-crusader]

Obviously not your place, bud id adore personal kaiju movie suggestions! Ive always loved Godzilla and ive hated not watching other movies of the sort. I love the old stuff too

Outside of Godzilla specifically, setting aside Ultraman because that's its own conversation, and understanding this is my taste plus I'll probably forget tons of great stuff, here are some of my personal kaiju movie and series recs:

Heisei Gamera series - Absolutely essential and some of the best, most charming, and most technically impressive kaiju films of all time.

Mothra (1961) - Before she was a Godzilla icon, Mothra starred in her own fantastic film that holds up impressively.

Rodan (1956) - See above. Rodan before invading the Godzilla world. A strong film in its own right, but if you can frame your response in terms of just how long ago this film was made, the city destruction seems are all the more incredible.

Matango - While not featuring giant monsters, Matango is one of Toho's finest combinations of whacky concept, science fiction, special effects, and human drama and performances.

King Kong Escapes - An utterly whacky, unforgettable Toho-fied version of the classic King Kong... featuring Mechanikong and "Dr. Hu." Dig, Kong, dig, you stupid ape!

Frankenstein vs Subterranean Monster Baragon - A 1960s Toho film with no Godzilla kaiju (at that time--Baragon would join the series later). Features some of the best performances by iconic Toho actors in films of this type, plus Baragon is just the best.

Giant Space Monster Dogora - An interesting, atypical science fiction kaiju film from Toho.

Tekkōki Mikazuki - From the guy behind Chojin Sentai Jetman, a fantasy giant super robot vs kaiju limited series not to be missed.

Pacific Rim - Maybe too obvious to even mention, but if you've enjoyed Godzilla and have not checked out this film, you're missing out.

Geharha: The Dark and Long Haired Monster - A 2009 kaiju parody short film directed by Kiyotaka Taguchi (of Ultraman fame) that is extremely cool.

SSSS. Gridman - An anime sequel to the classic tokusatsu series that's still criminally under-appreciated IMO. Digital giant hero vs digital monsters in a mysterious city that seems to reset, minus certain casualties, after kaiju attacks. Does not require having seen the original.

Gaea-Tima: The Gigantis - A fantastic new kaiju manga by KENT currently publishing and recently starting to be translated into English.

[atomic-crusader]

returning from hiatus with some classic earthquake shark wooooo

might be a little slow[er than usual] for a bit, i think i hurt my back from artfighting a little too hard lmao

[atomic-crusader]

The Summer Of Godzilla continues, counting down Monsterasia Zero’s top Goji films every Wednesday and Saturday! This Wednesday it’s Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, directed by Kazuki Ōmori

[atomic-crusader]

The She-Creature (1956)

[atomic-crusader]

[atomic-crusader]

[atomic-crusader]

[atomic-crusader]

Mom's Chocolate Sauce - art by John Bolton (1986)

[atomic-crusader]

Japan’s Hiroshima marks 80 years since US atomic bombing

Hiroshima’s mayor, Kazumi Matsui, warns of the dangers of rising global militarism.

Thousands of people have gathered in Hiroshima to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the world’s first wartime use of a nuclear bomb – as survivors, officials and representatives from 120 countries and territories marked the milestone with renewed calls for disarmament. The western Japanese city was flattened on August 6, 1945, when the United States dropped a uranium bomb, codenamed Little Boy. Roughly 78,000 people were killed instantly. Tens of thousands more would die by the end of the year due to burns and radiation exposure. The attack on Hiroshima, followed three days later by a plutonium bomb dropped on Nagasaki, led to Japan’s surrender on August 15 and the end of the second world war. Hiroshima had been chosen as a target partly because its surrounding mountains were believed by US planners to amplify the bomb’s force.

[...]

Hiroshima’s mayor, Kazumi Matsui, warned of the dangers of rising global militarism, criticising world leaders who argue that nuclear weapons are necessary for national security. “Among the world’s political leaders, there is a growing belief that possessing nuclear weapons is unavoidable in order to protect their own countries,” he said, noting that the United States and Russia still hold 90 percent of the world’s nuclear warheads. “This situation not only nullifies the lessons the international community has learned from the tragic history of the past, but also seriously undermines the frameworks that have been built for peace-building,” he said. “To all the leaders around the world: please visit Hiroshima and witness for yourselves the reality of the atomic bombing.” Many attendees echoed that call. “It feels more and more like history is repeating itself,” 71-year-old Yoshikazu Horie told the Reuters news agency. “Terrible things are happening in Europe … Even in Japan, in Asia, it’s going the same way – it’s very scary. I’ve got grandchildren and I want peace so they can live their lives happily.”