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Prime Minister Abe's support
With its Fukushima response metaphor, Shin Godzilla isn't critiquing the Japanese government as a whole. It's criticizing the previous administration that was in power during that disaster. It represents an indictment of the DPJ. The incompetent Prime Minister and government bureaucrats who are in charge at the beginning represent the DPJ, while Rando Yaguchi and his team of "real Japan" civilian recruits are meant to represent the LDP pulling Japan out of its mess and leading the nation into a bold new future. A number of plot points present LDP-based ideals as solutions for dealing with the threat posed by Godzilla. The LDP wants to rewrite Japan's post-WWII constitution to allow Japan to partake in international military operations with its United Nations allies. Shin Godzilla presents Article IX of the constitution as an inhibitor in Japan's efforts to respond to invasive threats. It also emphasizes that Japan's military ingenuity can emerge triumphant if the country is allowed to engage in the same kind of offensive or retaliatory operations as its international allies.
Yes, there are also key points that the movie doesn't touch on and that selective omission is also in line with LDP orthodoxy. The party is notorious for pushing a revisionist view of Japanese history which absolves Japan of any historical wrongdoing while also positing it as the perpetual victim nation. The LDP doesn't want Japanese schoolchildren to learn about historical events like the Nanking Massacre or the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Japan's history of imperial aggression is what led to its post-WWII pacifist constitution so of course the LDP prefers to deny that history. It's a conservative party that wants the Japan of the future to be a lot more like the Japan of the distant past. The current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is a champion of this revisionist movement and it's an appealing outlook for a great number of Japanese people. Just as it is in America, many Japanese people are uncomfortable even acknowledging the atrocities of their nation's past, much less denouncing those atrocities out loud or daring to see any parallels with their country's present trajectory. As the thinking goes, they weren't alive back then, they didn't commit those atrocities themselves, so why should they have anything to learn from that unpleasant history? Same old song and dance.
Shin Godzilla pushes the idea of Japan building up its military might while becoming a player on the world stage, and it avoids any acknowledgement of the abominable deeds perpetrated by the Empire of Japan in decades past, but it makes a point to use historical photographs to remind viewers that Japan was the victim of two atomic bombings during WWII. It cherry-picks from the past to push a specific vision for the future, one which is very much in line with the LDP vision for Japan.
It also emphasizes that Japan's military ingenuity can emerge triumphant if the country is allowed to engage in the same kind of offensive or retaliatory operations as its international allies.
kuribo-04 wrote:I might also jokingly say "In my story Spain dominates the world".
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