As I sat watching the Hollywood blockbuster Oppenheimer all I could think of was Edward Said. In his famous essay “Zionism from the Standpoint of Its Victims,” Said argued that there was no way to understand the ideology of Zionism----the idea of Jewish racial supremacy---without examining the experience of those who suffered from it, namely Palestinians like himself.
This is why Godzilla worked. The scenes after the first attack on Tokyo of hospitals filled with people with radiation burns and orphaned children are there for both the Japanese audience, but also very consciously meant to show the international audience the humanity of the Japanese people. All at a time when a Japanese film about the war and the bombs themselves would never be watched by an American audience.