The 10th anniversary of Gojira’s arrival into the public consciousness has come and passed, and with it have come some of the most rapid changes in human history. As we now move into a time without Gojira, a monster transformed from demon to guardian, it is more important than ever to know just how this new world came to be, and just what we can learn from it.

 

The first recorded photographs of Gojira are dated August 6, 1945, and taken by Hideto Ogata, a fisherman who only hours prior, watched the destruction of his city, Hiroshima. To this day no one can say with absolute certainty if it was the use of Atomic weapons which woke Gojira from his slumber, but for it to simply be a coincidence seems far-fetched. With the burden of the war and the long road to recovery on everyone's minds, these photos failed to get much attention and fell into obscurity. However, in 1948 a string of shipwrecks occurred in Japan's Inland sea, survivors telling tales of a beast similar to Hideto's. Pressured by the American occupation, this news was heavily censored till 1954, when an American destroyer was sunk off the coast of Odo Island, with huge claw marks on its side. This news, culminating in the publication of Hideto's photos, started a mass panic across Japan. Yet, no giant monster came, and slowly, but surely, these photos became nothing more than inspiration for cheap films starring men in rubber suits. 

 

For nearly 75 years, this was thought to be the end of the story, and the shipwrecks along with Hideto's photos disappeared from the public consciousness. Though, behind the scenes, the story was just the beginning, as the Americans, Japanese, and the Council of Europe came together and founded YOKAI. Derived from the Kanji symbols for Mysterious, Ghostly, YOKAI was just that, staying in the shadows, researching and studying, at first just Gojira, but then soon, a whole other slew of strange giant beasts – Daikaiju.