Living in Fear: Nuclear Films

In the 1950s, Japanese science-fiction films and documentaries portrayed the threat posed by nuclear weapons while nevertheless acknowledging the power of science and scientists to enhance people’s lives. This chapter discusses the American-made The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) and how it inspired mutant monster films such as Godzilla (1954). Nuclear fear was vividly portrayed in I Live in Fear (1955). At the same time, documentaries were being made in the USA and Japan to provide different perspectives on the situation that Japan uniquely found itself in: a nation that had fallen victim three times to nuclear weapons (at Hiroshima, Nagasaki and near Bikini Atoll) but strong in theoretical nuclear physics and actively pursuing the possibility of introducing civilian nuclear power