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INSTANT HALL OF FAME: Japanese Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Disaster March 2011
As the only nation to be A-bombed*, Japan has a unique perspective on nuclear power. Although most Americans associate
"Godzilla" with campy science fiction, there was a clear message embedded in the original 1954 film. Although the U.S. version was sanitized, the "radiation monster" was an intentional and apocalyptic allegory for Hiroshima and the U.S.- Soviet arms race. At the time, the two were engaged in a frenzy of blowing off bombs on the ground, in the air and beneath the sea. It was these explosions that awakened and mutated Godzilla, sending him off to crush Tokyo with his atomic breath. The possibility of a meltdown at a nuke built near a fault line by all means "points up" man's folly, no matter how ingenious their engineers.
