WVTR's "Sea Monster" of 1947

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Pkmatrix
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WVTR's "Sea Monster" of 1947

Post by Pkmatrix »

I saw this on Tumblr this morning (originally shared by thebatkissblog) and was blown away that I'd never heard of this incident before either in the context of the Godzilla fandom or during my undergraduate studies in Communications!

https://www.radioheritage.net/Story32.asp

Basically, it seems in the years after the war some enterprising US servicemen working for the military radio station in Japan put together a remake of the infamous 1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast but substituted the alien invaders for a sea dragon and set in Tokyo instead of New York. While I've never heard it brought up before as an inspiration for Godzilla, considering this broadcast happened in Tokyo just seven years before the movie was made and inspired enough of a panic to make the newspaper at the time I find it hard to believe the creators of Godzilla were completely unaware of it.

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Re: WVTR's "Sea Monster" of 1947

Post by Gojira1604 »

Very interesting. To think Honors had (possibly) more inspirations than the ones we already know about. I question the motives of the servicemen broadcasting this knowing the panic the original caused in the US. Did they simply want to expose the Japanese to a retelling of a significant piece of US Scifi? Or were they trying to recreate the scare it caused? Maybe out of resentment for Japan which had been their enemy just two years before. Or maybe for "sh*ts & giggles" again, assuming they even believed it could frighten the population into believing the broadcast was real.
It's interesting that they figured Japanese citizens would be more receptive to a dragon than aliens.

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Re: WVTR's "Sea Monster" of 1947

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The biggest problem with identifying what may or may not be an inspiration for Godzilla is that the official story is pretty much straight-up "Tomoyuki Tanaka came up with it out of the blue". There's a few officially cited inspirations (King Kong, Beast, Lucky Dragon No. 5) but we'll never know if there was anything further that might have influenced it. I think this story (if it's true, I have my doubts on its authenticity) along with the "Arctic Giant" Superman short were probably somewhere in the back of Tanaka's mind when development for G54 began but we'll just sadly never know for sure.

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Gojira1604 wrote: Sun Jan 22, 2023 11:39 am Or maybe for "sh*ts & giggles" again, assuming they even believed it could frighten the population into believing the broadcast was real.
Considering the likely attitudes of American soldiers in occupied Japan at the time, I almost definitely believe this to be the case.
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Re: WVTR's "Sea Monster" of 1947

Post by LSD Jellyfish »

I mean it’s possible, but it really doesn’t matter. What I mean to say is that all sorts of freakish monsters attacking, is sort of a big thing in world wide mythos, throughout the ages. Astounding Beyond Belief recently posted an excerpt that posted more about the radio-program. In that, the monster was 20 feet tall; large but not impossibly huge like Godzilla. The military fights it with flamethrowers and other weapons. A way to scare people would be re-using that War of the World panic, and of course culturally Japanese people in that era might connect more with mythical creatures and monsters.

Mildly controversial, but I don’t think Godzilla 1954 is so great because of originality, but rather the execution, emotion, and technical skills behind it.

It WOULD be funny if the upcoming Godzilla film, which may take place in the 40s, somehow accompanied this element into the film.
Last edited by LSD Jellyfish on Mon Jan 23, 2023 6:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: WVTR's "Sea Monster" of 1947

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LSD Jellyfish wrote: Mon Jan 23, 2023 6:43 am Mildly controversial, but I don’t think Godzilla 1954 is so great because of originality, but rather the execution, emotion, and technical skills behind it.
I kind of realized this after re-watching 20,000 Fathoms recently. I still think the character design itself quite original, but the idea of a giant monster on the loose had certainly been done before. Not that any of this really matters, of course.

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Re: WVTR's "Sea Monster" of 1947

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shadowgigan wrote: Mon Jan 23, 2023 12:26 pm
LSD Jellyfish wrote: Mon Jan 23, 2023 6:43 am Mildly controversial, but I don’t think Godzilla 1954 is so great because of originality, but rather the execution, emotion, and technical skills behind it.
I kind of realized this after re-watching 20,000 Fathoms recently. I still think the character design itself quite original, but the idea of a giant monster on the loose had certainly been done before. Not that any of this really matters, of course.
Plus the movie itself is not even that subtle about it, everyone from Honda to Eiji and other members of the production team mentioned time and time again the visual inspiration from movies like King Kong, Beast etc. In the end the concept originality wasn’t the main draw as much as it way the utilization itself and the contemporary thematic background behind it.

I definitely wouldn’t put it past this particular stunt being in the conscious of some of the people that worked on Gojira but overall it doesn’t sound like it was quite the major event as much as a localized practical joke. The fact that it apparently generated enough attention to displease McArthur is amusing though.
Last edited by Dv-218 on Mon Jan 23, 2023 3:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: WVTR's "Sea Monster" of 1947

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Definitely a cool read! Thanks for sharing!

It's certainly within the realm of possibilities that this incident remained somewhere deep in the back of Tanaka's head during Godzilla's inception. But as others have said, we'll just never know for sure. That said, the article's anti-Japanese sentiment about the world being left with the "false impression" about Godzilla's true origins is just plain ugly.
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Re: WVTR's "Sea Monster" of 1947

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MaxRebo320 wrote: Sat Feb 04, 2023 10:42 am That said, the article's anti-Japanese sentiment about the world being left with the "false impression" about Godzilla's true origins is just plain ugly.
Not surprised considering it's a post written by a WW2 veteran. There's absolutely some lingering racism there.
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Re: WVTR's "Sea Monster" of 1947

Post by CrimsonBloodX »

Wow. That is very interesting! Maybe Tomoyuki Tanaka was inspired by this, maybe not at all. We'll never know for sure since I don't think he ever mentioned this radio broadcast.
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