Here & Now
Godzilla: Symbol of Japan's Post WWII Nuclear Anxiety02:41
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Nine years after the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japanese moviegoers in 1954 wept when watching the original "Godzilla." The towering reptile that destroyed Tokyo was a symbol of nuclear science run amok.But, as anthropologist Peter Wynn Kirby tells us, the Godzilla movies changed over the years, along with Japanese attitudes towards nuclear energy.
Peter Wynn Kirby is a researcher with the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at Oxford University.
- YouTube: Godzilla 1954 trailer
- New York Times: Japan's nuclear disaster film
This segment aired on March 25, 2011.
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