How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Godzilla.
Quote #1
DISTRESSED WOMAN: You have no idea If there are any survivors?
OFFICER: We won't until morning. A helicopter and two ships are heading there now. We can't say anything until we receive their report.
WORRIED MAN: Why not send more ships? Two aren't enough!
OFFICER: We aren't limiting the search party to two ships. Rest assured that we'll devote all our resources to the search.
The sinking of the Eiko-maru mirrors a tragedy that happened a few months before the film's release, the Daigo Fukuryu Maru incident, in which a Japanese fishing vessel was irradiated by an U.S. H-bomb test in the Pacific.
Once again, the Japanese were the victims of a nuclear bomb, but by this time, the U.S. occupation had ended, and the Japanese were free to protest. Godzilla's anti-nuclear message is the best remembered form that protest took.
Quote #2
WOMAN PASSENGER: You're terrible. I barely escaped the atomic bomb in Nagasaki—and now this!
MAN PASSENGER: I'll have to find a place to evacuate to.
WOMAN PASSENGER: Find me one, too.
OLDER PASSENGER: Evacuate again? I've had enough!
The film's original audience would've lived through the U.S. bombing campaigns of World War II and the subsequent occupation, making conversations like these feel pertinent and timely for them.
Oh, and pay attention to these commuters—they'll appear later on the party boat Godzilla attacks. Theirs is a short yet tragic story.
Quote #3
TV NEWS: With nearly 20 ships sunk so far, Godzilla, monster of the century, has all of Japan in a panic. The frigate squadron has begun its depth-charge attack. The ten-vessel fleet left port at 10:00 a.m., headed for the west coast of Odo Island. At 10:17 they received orders to commence attack.
Sounds like a wartime newsreel, with images from the Japanese military dropping depth charges. A decade earlier, these images would've been part of a militaristic campaign for Japan's expansionist war effort. But in Godzilla, the nation's reconceptualized its military as a force for defense from an invasive force, not a force for invading and colonial expansion.