Member-only story
Monster Islands: Godzilla Movies As Teaching Tools of Human History
Nearly everything I wanted to learn about anthropology was influenced by the giant monster movies of Japan.
Why do giant monsters in the 1960s special effects films of Japan nearly always seem to come from make-believe islands situated in the South Pacific? From the time of my childhood in the 1970s, this connecting thread was something of a puzzle to me. But I wasn’t the only inquisitive daikaiju (“giant monster”) geek to ever get his brow furrowed over this oft’ recycled motif.
In a 1992 essay that begins his own inquiry into the matter, Japanese cultural critic Nagayama Yasuo also pondered the significance of this recurring theme in the motion pictures of his homeland when he asked: “Why do monsters always come from the South–specifically the South Pacific–in Toho monster films?”
Sollgel Island, a fictional volcanic islet featured in Son of Godzilla (1967), is home to both the giant spider Spiega and Kamacuras, a mammoth praying mantis.
Mothra, a hill-sized silkworm moth in the eponymous 1961 film in which she starred, comes from the similarly fictional Infant Island. And the suitably named Monster Island of Destroy All Monsters (1968) is yet another fascinating fantasy isle…
