YES, there is a connection between “Oppenheimer” and “Godzilla.”

By Jim Tortolano/Orange County Tribune

The  latest iteration of the big lizard vs. big ape movies – “GodzillaXKong” – is in cinemas now, but to me a more interesting film concept is “Oppenheimer vs. Godzilla.”

  The film, starring Cillian Murphy (about the troubled genius who was the driving force behind the development of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945) has finally opened in Japan to mixed reactions.

 That might be expected. But what might also be considered is the connection between Oppenheimer’s “invention” and the Monster that Stomped on Tokyo (and later, other cities, including New York).

 The original “Godzilla”s story line was inspired by American testing of nuclear devices in the Pacific Ocean in 1954 which irradiated a Japanese fishing vessel, sickening the crew, one of which died.

GODZILLA was more than just a big monster. Themes of the film included the threat of nuclear war and ideas about the guilt of America and Japan in World War II.

As the story line goes, Godzilla was an ancient dinosaur sleeping beneath the surface who was awakened – and apparently annoyed – by the atomic blast. After sinking some ships, he made a bee-line for Tokyo where he wreaked much havoc.

  It’s never explicitly stated in the movie, but it’s implied that the testing was being carried out by the U.S. military. The destruction of Tokyo, etc., can be seen as a metaphor for the American fire-bombing of the Japanese capital, and the rampages of Godzilla as analogous to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One view of this is to place the blame for Japan’s problems on Uncle Sam.

On the other hand, the handiwork of Oppenheimer and associates is the direct consequence of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and the beginning of war against the U.S., Great Britain and the Netherlands (who controlled the oil-rich area now known as Indonesia). Perhaps there was a direct line between Japan’s imperialistic designs and the A-bomb.

In the “Oppenheimer” film, much is made of the moral ambiguity and irony of using a weapon of mass destruction to bring peace. The original “Godzilla” makes the argument that science has unleashed a war on nature and that nature (in the form of the mighty lizard) is fighting back.

But there’s another possible perspective. In the 1954 “Godzilla,” the Japan that struggles with the monster is a thoroughly Americanized Japan, characters wearing American-style  clothes, smoking American cigarettes and using American-manufactured jet fighters and tanks to battle the creature.

You could make a pretty good argument that “Godzilla” was a lot like the land of Coca Cola: an unstoppable force that could not easily be defeated and whose influence would have to be endured.