Episode 17: ‘The Last War’ (Mini-Analysis)

2020-05-27

Hello, kaiju lovers! Except today’s episode isn’t about giant monsters. Heck, it’s barely about tokusatsu. Nathan is analyzing the criminally underseen 1961 antiwar drama The Last War. While most of the creative team behind the camera aren’t the ones usually followed by kaiju/toku fans, there are several familiar faces in front of the camera: Frankie Sakai (Mothra), Yuriko Hoshi (Mothra vs. Godzilla, etc.), and Akira Takarada (too many to list). This film depicts a middle class Japanese...

Hello, kaiju lovers!

Except today’s episode isn’t about giant monsters. Heck, it’s barely about tokusatsu. Nathan is analyzing the criminally underseen 1961 antiwar drama The Last War. While most of the creative team behind the camera aren’t the ones usually followed by kaiju/toku fans, there are several familiar faces in front of the camera: Frankie Sakai (Mothra), Yuriko Hoshi (Mothra vs. Godzilla, etc.), and Akira Takarada (too many to list). This film depicts a middle class Japanese family navigating everyday life interspersed with Japanese government officials and foreign soldiers trying to avoid World War III. It is a perfect snapshot of the Japanese national spirit at that moment in time and, Nathan argues, is the precursor to 1984’s The Return of Godzilla. As part of his analysis, Nathan reads the Bible passage quoted in the film (plus the following two verses that would’ve offered some hope) and a John Bradley poem that would’ve been perfect for the end of the film.

All this plus Nathan opens the mailbag to answer some listener feedback!

This is meant to supplement this episode of Kaijuvision Radio, which featured the fantastic Danny DiManna: Episode 43: The Last War (1961) (NATO) (The North Atlantic Treaty Organization).

I’d like to give a shout-out to our Patreon patrons Travis Alexander (host of Kaiju Weekly), Danny DiManna, and elizilla13! Thanks for your support!

Read Jimmy’s Notes on this episode.

Please donate to David Marshall and his family on GoFundMe.

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Bibliography/Further Reading:

“Explaining Japanese Antimilitarism: Normative and Realist Constraints on Japan’s Security Policy” by Yasuhiro Izumikawa (International Security, Vol. 35, No. 2 (FALL 2010), pp. 123-160)
“The Last War” (Wikizilla)
“Little Prayer on Hiroshima Day” (from Erotica Atomica by John Bradley)
“Long live pacifism! Narrative power and Japan’s pacifist model” by Karl Gustafsson, Linus Hagström & Ulv Hanssen (Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 32:4, 502-520)
“A Pacifist Japan Starts to Embrace the Military” by Motoko Rich (The New York Times)
Terror of the Lost Tokusatsu Films!: From the Files of the Big Book of Japanese Giant Monster Movies by John Lemay
“Three Non-Nuclear Principles” (Wikipedia)
“Yoshida Doctrine” (Wikipedia)