Mothra’s Gigantic Egg: Consuming the South Pacific in 1960s Japan

Abstract

In an essay originally published in 1992, the cultural critic Nagayama Yasuo raised an intriguing question: why do monsters always come from the South—specifically the South Pacific—in Toho monster films? 1 Godzilla’s original habitat is in the South Pacific. Mothra—a giant silkworm moth—inhabits the imaginary Infant Island, which is in close proximity to the Polynesian Islands. The equally imaginary Faro Island in the South Pacific is supposed to be the home of Kng Kong in King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962). Monster Island, where monsters congregate, exists somewhere in the South Pacific in Godzilla’s Revenge (1969). Although Nagayama offers many suggestive answers—such as that the monster comes back to reenact Japan’s prewar colonial fantasies—ultimately his argument is less historical than allegorical. His overall argument fails to take into account the evolving cultural roles of the monster—its evolution from foe to friend. Godzilla’s blind fury in the 1950s represents a threat to Japan’s postwar prosperity, whereas Mothra’s egg in the 1960s becomes an emblem of Japan’s consumerism. Tōhō monsters are transformed from fearful, destructive entities to lovable creatures amidst the rise of consumer society in Japan.