Problematizing Narratives of Tragedy: Postwar Scientific Discourse in Tōho SFX Films

Abstract

ABSTRACT Tōho SFX films (tokusatsu eiga), more popularly known as kaiju films, are a subgenre of Japanese films that flourished in the postwar era. Since many of the early films feature radioactive monsters, the genre is largely valued for reflecting the trauma and anxiety of nuclear bombs, testing, and effects of radiation in postwar society. Rather than focus on nuclear science, this study considers the continuation of scientific development from wartime to postwar by examining two neglected films that deal with the horrors of military science: Tōmei Ningen (Oda, 1954) and Densō Ningen (Fukuda, 1960). It argues that while the films reflect the social structures that saw the laundering of a more complicated scientific development that included wartime atrocities, they also offer instances of resistance to such prevailing ideologies. By moving away from a preoccupation with nuclear discourse and consequently from victimhood, this study aims to complicate the approach to Tōho SFX films as cultural responses to the trauma of the war experience.