DUDE, WHAT HAPPENED

                  TO THE  KAIJU?

                 By Christofer Nigro

We who comprise the esteemed vocations that operate out of the misty halls of Miskatonic University, Wold Newton University, Janus University, and Spektor University are well aware of the fantastic phenomena that exist in this world, mostly unbeknownst to the general public. We allow our fellow persons to live in blissful ignorance of the truth so that they can sleep nights and feel confident that the mainstream human race (and not any sub-variation thereof, such as homo sapiens superior, i.e., mutantkind) is truly in control of our world, and at the top of this planet’s food chain, so to speak. We don’t want to create cause for people en masse to feel the need to jump at every little sound they hear at night, or every little shadow they come across, when returning home from a pleasant evening at the theater. 

       So a small portion of our exalted species--namely, we scholars from the above mentioned universities who operate MONSTAAH--have chosen to eschew this state of comfortable bliss due to both our unremitting curiosity and desire for knowledge about the mysteries of our world—and the universe and multiverse beyond it—and our desire to find the means to keep the human race safe from highly unusual, and unusually dangerous, threats to its safety. We live our lives on the arcane side of things so that the majority of humanity can live in a relative degree of comfort.

          But the big question of this particular essay is:  What degree of the fantastic can the strange creatures that co-inhabit this world on the periphery of mainstream human awareness reach?

       How dangerous and mighty can the things that periodically emerge from the shadows--or the depths of the ocean, whatever the case may be--to threaten and challenge our comfortable notion of having control over the world and our very lives, actually become?

       And as a corollary to that question, how complicit may the honored leaders of the human race in the present era of history be with covering up the existence of some of the more incredible horrors that may threaten our civilization? And if they were totally transparent about the reality of monstrous threats on such a city-shattering scale, would this potentially compromise humanity’s feeling of unquestioned dominance of this little globe on the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy that we humbly consider our home?

            This brings us to one of the most extraordinary and powerful of all the myriad types of creatures that I have dedicated my life to studying: The legendary class of creatures known as daikaiju (often abbreviated to simply "kaiju" for the sake of brevity), which is Japanese for "mysterious creature" or “giant monster.” The reason that the nomenclature for such extraordinary beasts of massive size and seeming incompatibility with the physical laws of the world we inhabit derives from the Japanese language is due to the unsubstantiated rumors that on rare occasions, such creatures have risen to decimate pockets of Japanese civilization (and sometimes elsewhere) from the mid-20^th century onwards.

     But if such is the case, why do we not have substantial proof? Why do some of the most honored and respected scholars from the above-mentioned universities flatly deny the existence of kaiju? Do they have good reason for these doubts, despite the many other fantastic things they know to exist in this world?

          The answer to that question is yes, because as all objective scholars are aware, extraordinary claims and theories require extraordinary evidence. And if creatures of such fantastic size and power were amongst the diverse menagerie of things that go bump in the night who secretly share the world with humanity, how could they possibly do so secretly? Vampires, werewolves, ghosts, ghouls, wild men, demons, zombies, flesh golems, and slashers of the standard varieties may lurk in the shadows mostly unseen among common humanity, but could beasts on the scale and power of kaiju possibly do the same? If creatures in excess of 150 feet in height with the power to literally crush large cities and decimate entire military units exist, then where is the evidence? Why do I support the possibility that creatures on such a scale could possibly exist if there isn’t sufficient evidence to back up a theory?

          Okay, to start with, let’s look at the historical precedent for such super-creatures. Does it exist? If one is willing to include enough ancient legends and stories as providing hints of reality, then yes, it does. Beasts of truly gigantic size and power, often possessing energy-emitting abilities, and often (though not always) reptilian in nature, appear sparingly but notably in ancient world mythology. Examples include the Babylonian super-dragon Tiamut, the Greek kaiju-like beast known as Typhon, and the Norse wurm of immense length and might known as Jormungand the Midgard Serpent. Such denizens of the paranormal bestiary were of such size and power that even the gods of these various mythologies were given pause by them, and had difficulty defeating them. Since it’s known to us that ancient mythology has all too many hints of truth, what do we make of the creatures who appear in these particular legends?

          And truth be told, the whispery legends of such ultra-huge creatures of shattering power who are capable of challenging the gods themselves doesn’t end with world mythologies, for some fascinating legends of this nature are extant in the Bible, with creatures such as Leviathan and Behemoth.

          Let’s take a look at portions of a description of Leviathan in the Bible, as written in Job

41:1-41:34:

            Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?

 If you lay a hand on him, you will remember the struggle and never do it again!

 I will not fail to speak of his limbs, his strength and his graceful form.

 Who can strip off his outer coat? Who would approach him with a bridle?

 Who dares open the doors of his mouth, ringed about with his fearsome teeth?

 His back has rows of shields tightly sealed together;

 each is so close to the next that no air can pass between.

 They are joined fast to one another; they cling together and cannot be parted.

 His snorting throws out flashes of light; his eyes are like the rays of dawn.

 Firebrands stream from his mouth; sparks of fire shoot out.

 Smoke pours from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over a fire of reeds.

 His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from his mouth.

 Strength resides in his neck; dismay goes before him.

 The folds of his flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable.

 His chest is hard as rock, hard as a lower millstone.

 When he rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before his thrashing.

 The sword that reaches him has no effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the  javelin.

 Iron he treats like straw and bronze like rotten wood.

 Arrows do not make him flee, slingstones are like chaff to him.

 A club seems to him but a piece of straw, he laughs at the rattling of the lance.

His undersides are jagged potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing-sledge.

 He makes the depths churn like a boiling cauldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.

Behind him he leaves a glistening wake; one would think the deep had white hair.

Nothing on earth is his equal— a creature without fear.

He looks down on all that are haughty; he is king over all that are proud.

            The Hebrew Bible goes on to say that only Yahweh is capable of destroying rare creatures of such amazing size and power as the Leviathan (in Psalm 74), and that this will only be done “at the end of time” (in Isaiah 27:1). This closely mirrors the Greek legend of Typhon, who could only be destroyed in battle by Zeus, the most powerful of the deities.

          Upon reading that description written down in ancient scripture, it can be said to sound disconcertingly familiar in regards to certain claims and rumors about a specific creature who is alleged to have made at least one appearance in the 20^th century: Godzilla.

          But what exactly is Godzilla? According to modern legend, he was initially  one of the beasts who were supposedly created as a result of one of the remaining relict pseudo-dinosaurs and other gigantic creatures created in prehistory from the brilliant geneticists of ancient Lemuria, which still reside on various uncharted Pacific atolls, and were exposed to massive amounts of atomic radiation due to all the testing from the United States government that occurred from the early days of World War II into the Cold War years beyond (see Mark Brown's important article, Prehistoric Survivors in the Pacific).[i] This seems to have resulted in the mutation of some of these pseudo-dinosaurs, giant serpents, pseudo-insectoids, giant faux arthropods, and various other megafauna into much larger and more powerful creatures, courtesy of their very hardy and adaptable genetic structures, which may have been designed to resist and adapt to radiation-based weaponry from Atlantean forces. (These ancient Lemurian geneticists may also be responsible for the creation of the now all but extinct Kongoid species of giant simian, but that’s a topic for another essay.)

          In 1954, a devastating event struck the great city of Tokyo, Japan. The extent of that devastation may have been exaggerated in some of the reports, and a number of different causes were proposed by various researchers outside of our profession, many from those who worked for a multiplicity of international government agencies. These explanations ranged from a severe earthquake coupled with a few massive tsunamis that struck the island nation, to a cover-up surrounding a USA atomic bomb testing mishap that allegedly occurred a bit too close to the Japanese mainland outside of Tokyo, and ostensibly accounted for the severe tidal waves and tremors culled from the other reports. The latter of the two explanations doesn’t seem too likely in retrospect, but it has been suggested by some researchers to account for the allegedly large amounts of radiation discovered in the aftermath of the event, which included several people ending up sickened with radiation poisoning. Similar examples of radiation sickness were found in a rash of assaults on a few groups of seamen that occurred some months prior to the event in Tokyo. Many panicked reports from the surviving citizenry of the destructive event claimed accounts of a “giant sea monster,” but government sources say these references were metaphorical allusions to these destructive occurrences being connected to an old legend called Godzilla (Gojira in Japanese).

          But what was Godzilla, according to Eastern legend? The peaceful natives of Odo Island, an atoll located about 60 miles off the coast of Japan, have shared legends with the Japanese about a gigantic bipedal dragon that arises from the sea to periodically threaten the world, possessing attributes surprisingly similar to that of the Biblical descriptions of Leviathan excerpted above. Note how those ancient descriptions allude to a dragon-like monster of towering size and nigh-invulnerable skin, with “firebeams streaking from his mouth”; “sparks of fire shoot out” [of his mouth]; “smoke pours out of his nostrils as from a boiling pot over a fire of reeds”; “his breath sets coals ablaze, and fire darts from his mouth.” All of this correlates not only to the reputed size, reptilian/amphibious nature, and resistance to advanced military weaponry attributed to Godzilla in some of the reports, but also to his supposed tendency to spew forth bluish-white spurts of energy from his maw that was alleged to consist of beams of concentrated radiation. Such energy bursts, if actually witnessed, may resemble the "sparks" of flame said to spew from the mouth of the Leviathan according to the eyes of people living in ancient eras with whom radiation was unknown, as such huge incandescent  beams of radiation would produce a destructive heat effect upon any object—living or inanimate—that it struck, easily melting even solid steel. But where did the bulk of these reports outside of Japan come from? Is there any evidence they were more than a fever dream suffered from the trauma of the people subjected to a severe environmental disaster combined with both the then-still-recent atomic bombing of two major Japanese cities and old superstitions and legends?

          It must be noted that there is a major American source in favor of Godzilla's actual existence, but how reliable that source is has been called into question by many researchers. And that source is reporter Steven Martin, who was in Japan at the time of the disaster, and in fact was injured and hospitalized as a result. His claims were largely dismissed as sensationalistic rubbish by the international media, but he wrote them down in detail in his book This Is Tokyo.[ii] This book sparked a worldwide fascination with these claims and the concept of daikaiju, but many insisted that the set of wild allegations contained in the pages of Martin's memoir had no more evidence behind them to account for the 1954 disaster that struck Tokyo than those underlying the still unsubstantiated legends of the Bermuda Triangle and alligators thriving in small breeding populations in the New York City sewer system. But there are other reports that need to be examined in addition to those explicated in print by Martin.

          The renowned Japanese archeologist Dr. Kyohei Yamane is said to have traveled to Odo Island to investigate evidence of Godzilla’s presence there. He reported his discovery of an immensely huge footprints that appeared to have been made by a bipedal reptile, akin to that of an ancient carnasaur of astounding size. Around that footprint he also claimed to have discovered large traces of radioactivity, along with a small creature that he initially believed to be a long-extinct Paleozoic species of aquatic arthropod known as a trilobite. He later recanted and said it was more likely be some type of tiny parasitic sea louse mutated into a larger form that superficially resembled a trilobite.[iii]

          It is most important to note that Dr. Yamane’s involvement with the incident, and the disparate reports surrounding it, does not end with his own investigations and conclusions. His daughter, Emiko, was betrothed to his equally respected colleague, scientist Dr. Daisuke Serizawa, who is also said by some sources to be an old college friend of Steven Martin. Dr. Serizawa was an eccentric, somber, and somewhat reclusive scientist despite his great renown, and his mysterious suicide shortly after the destructive event that struck Japan in 1954 has created a lot of controversy. Some reports suggested that he invented a very dangerous weapon, which he feared would fall into the wrong hands if allowed to be used, and he was determined to take the secret of this terrible weapon to the grave with him after supposedly using it just once to destroy Godzilla; other reports claim his suicide was simply due to Emiko Yamane loving another man instead of him; still other reports claim a combination of these two factors underlying his suicide, but we may never be entirely certain.[iv]

          Godzilla has also been referred to in many apocalyptic scenarios reported by famed psychics, but this may be nothing more than metaphorical symbolism. Nevertheless, a close friend of mine who is a professional psychic has spoken of a series of extremely intense and disturbing visions she received circa 1999-2000, right at the turn of the Millennium, where she said she was bombarded with images of several kaiju, including one that was unmistakably Godzilla, causing vast amounts of devastation to human civilization across the world. This occurred along with protracted battles against the military of many different nations as humankind struggled to defend itself from the assaults of such impossibly powerful beasts. Moreover, the military weaponry in these visions consisted of both conventional combat technology and much more exotic machinery that included flying warships of impressively advanced design and an array of human-created mechanized kaiju.

       The above visions of some seemingly apocalyptic alternate timeline coincided with another alleged report of Godzilla attacking Japan in 1999 (unconfirmed, with destruction said to have occurred via a hurricane instead), along with our own reports of a gigantic bipedal iguana-like monster of a hermaphroditic nature who made two quick forays into New York City circa 1998; the latter creature was euphemistically referred to in reports as “Godzilla” due to its extremely superficial resemblance to the legendary image of Godzilla reported by Steven Martin and Odo Island natives. That beast, who has since been called simply “Zilla” or “GINO” (our scholars have to have a sense of humor to remain sane in this vocation), clearly wasn’t the legendary Godzilla, as the creature lacked any type of energy-projection from the maw, and was relatively easily dispatched by military weaponry once he (I’ll refer to the creature with the pronouns “him” and “he” for simplicity’s sake) was trapped between the steel suspension cables of the Brooklyn Bridge, and therefore unable to evade a salvo of missiles.[v]

          My friend’s potent psychic visions of an apocalypse of daikaiju threatening the world from the late 1990s into the early ‘00s obviously didn’t occur on this timeline, but she insists that it did happen in at least some alternate realities that lie close to our own. Because of that, she suspects that some of these god-like monsters of majestic size and tremendous destructive power may lie in wait in our own reality, even though their appearances thus far, if they did occur, have been exceedingly rare, with never more than one or two large cities affected at a time.

          Many scholars have argued that Zilla wasn’t truly a kaiju, as despite his size and strength, he lacked the sheer power and nigh-indestructibility of actual kaiju as reported in modern legends, including the “true” Godzilla. In fact, Zilla is probably related to some of the lesser radioactive mutations of some of the surviving pseudo-dinosaurs created by the Lemurians, and likely connected to the creature dubbed a “Rhedosaurs” by scientist Dr. Thomas Nesbitt, which rampaged in New York City a year before the destructive event in Tokyo, as well as the Apatasaur-like, radiation-spewing beast named after the Biblical Behemoth, who arose from the River Thames to rampage through London a few years following the 1954 destruction event in Tokyo.[vi]

       During this same decade, a gigantic creature resembling a praying mantis—referred to alternately as “Pretor” or “the Deadly Mantis”—emerged from a frozen state of suspended animation in the Arctic, which is curiously the same locale that the Rhedosaurus was likewise said to initially emerge from. The Deadly Mantis went on a rampage across various areas of the globe that ended with its crawling atop the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., where it was shot down and subsequently dispatched by a grenade chucked at its head at close range by a soldier in the Manhattan Tunnel. It is believed that this creature was not a true giant insect, which is said to be a physiological impossibility by modern scientific understanding; rather, it was an animal genetically manufactured to resemble a colossal insect in outward appearance by the same ancient Lemurian geneticists who created the pseudo-dinosaurs. This may account for the reports of alleged strange dinosaur-like lizards and giant insects/arachnids appearing together on various South Seas islands and elsewhere.[vii]

            But again, as mighty and dangerous as megafauna like the Rhedosaurus, the Giant Behemoth, the Deadly Mantis, and Zilla undoubtedly were, it can be cogently argued by some scholars that they could not be kaiju in the same vein as the legendary Godzilla           was described. This is mostly because, again, they clearly lacked his sheer power and reported level of indestructibility. The city-wide destruction they caused was considerable, and they were known  to exhibit signs of radioactivity. In the end, however, they  proved  no match for modern military weaponry.

           So what other evidence may there be for the reality of Godzilla    and  other, bona fide daikaiju of his caliber?

         First, lets consider how another kaiju-oriented legend originating in Japan likewise correlates with the apocalyptic visions my professional psychic friend and colleague had at the turn of the Millennium that  disturbed her so profoundly.

                   This means observing the iconic kaiju meme of Rodan.

      The prominent pop culture image of the giant flying uber-pterodactyl which both Eastern and Western culture use to symbolize anything powerful and fast, especially if they happen to    fly--including the LexAir Radon, a specially designed commercial plane—and as a metaphor for oncoming disaster, is derived from the 20^th century legend referred to those familiar with kaiju studies as Rodan.

Those who have such a level of familiarity with the pop culture presence of kaiju imagery will quickly recognize Rodan and the titanic wingspan he displays from many and varied sources in addition to the aforementioned aircraft, including as the name of a popular early 1990s American post-hardcore band;  a well known online kaiju information site called Rodan’s Roost; and as an oft-used colloquialism of psychics and mediums to describe anything large, originating in the      sky, and presaging a disaster.

        The name “Rodan” is an Americanized permutation of Radon, a contraction of the term “pteranodon,” the nomenclature of the largest species of pterodactyl--the prehistoric predatory flying reptiles who shared the Earth with the dinosaurs during the Mesozoic Era--due to this kaiju’s superficial anatomical resemblance to a pteranodon. Of course, as per his qualifications as a true daikaiju, Rodan is far larger and more powerful than any naturally evolved  pteranodon. Also, rumor has it that this culturally ubiquitous kaiju was also descendant of the Lemurian pseudo-prehistoric  survivors who were extant on a few South Pacific islands well into the 20^th century, and identified via the research of Prof. Mark Brown, which evolved into an incredibly huge and powerful creature whose hardy genetic structure became heavily irradiated by exposure to the U.S. government’s atomic bomb tests of the 1940s in the Pacific Ocean.

Some cultural renditions of Rodan display him with the ability to emit a beam of glowing concentrated radiation in a manner similar to Godzilla, whereas others suggest no such beam weapon capacity. Though reports of this creature’s flying speed varied from source to source, he was often said to be capable of exceeding Mach 1, soaring through the sky at speeds unimaginable to any natural living creature, including the prehistoric pteranodons, who simply glided and swooped on air currents more so than displaying true flight like genuine avians, or bats, the only species of true flying mammal; the kaiju was also reported as capable of creating sonic disruptions that could destructively shatter all glass and rip the mortar of buildings to shreds whenever this creature passed over them in high speed flight.

Not even the Native American legends of the Thunderbird come close to matching the level of size, speed, and power attributed to Rodan. Also, despite his clear bird-like features, Rodan is described in almost all urban tales as being reptilian, not avian, and thus possessing no feathers, nor the body hair that true pteranodons of the Mesozoic Era possessed (though not any of the synthetically created pseudo-species). His impregnability to the most advanced military weaponry was well attested in the legends, a classic daikaiju feature, though there are reports of the creature proving vulnerable to molten lava. Nevertheless, one gets the impression of god-like might and resilience when reading the legends of Rodan, much as they do with Godzilla, a quality not possessed by the many other giant but smaller megafauna documented in this essay (e.g., the Rhedosaurus, the Giant Behemoth, the Deadly Mantis).

        But the big question regarding this monstrous Emperor of the Sky is whether or not there is anything substantive behind the modern legend.

        It must be admitted by this author that no proof of such a creature’s existence has been provided, but the rumors persist and refuse to go away. The rumors begin with a reputed 1956 incident that ensued in the small, ordinarily innocuous Japanese mining town of Kitamatsu, which originated around a newly excavated mine. As if reports of the town being besieged by an infestation of huge, human-killing predatory insectoid creatures emerging from a section of that mine wasn’t bad enough (these insectoid beasts were referred to in reports as Meganulon, and if the reports were true, these creatures were likely remnants of a species created by ancient Lemurian geneticists for use as bio-weapons), a miner named Shiguru Kawamura, who was temporarily trapped in the dreaded Section 8 of that mine, claims he awakened from unconsciousness to view an enormous winged monster hatch from an egg in the center of a massive cavern deep within the mine, and then proceed to devour the Meganula. It must be noted that hospital records indicate that when he was found wandering from the mine in a state of complete shock, Kawamura was suffering from a skull fracture and a severe state of emotional trauma due to the ordeal, so many investigators have said his sighting could easily have been a hallucinatory fever dream.

But this incident was followed up many months later by two mysterious destructive events that occurred almost simultaneously in the cities of Fukuoka and Sasebo, and several people swore that the cities were attacked by a gigantic flying creature resembling a prehistoric pterodactyl or featherless bird, resisting the best that the Japanese Self-Defense Force [JSDF] could throw at it, and capable of creating hurricane-force winds simply by flapping its enormous wings, or destructive sonic booms while flying at maximum speed. Some people reported seeing two such creatures in Fukuoka, which some kaiju investigators in the “believer” category say may account for two Japanese cities attacked around the same time. However, this has been opined to be greater evidence of a widespread example of urban mass hysteria comparable to the ‘Monkey Man’ fiasco occurring in New Delhi, India, and its surrounding areas circa 2001-02. The Japanese and American governments (the latter nation having diplomatic facilities in Sasebo) both issued statements to the international press claiming that the twin disasters were caused by two very severe earthquakes striking two separate cities, followed by a traumatic mass hysteria in a citizenry caught by surprise in the shock and awe of such an event.

The whole legend was capped off by an alleged confrontation between the JSDF and Rodan at Mt. Aso, where it was said the creature took refuge within the huge caverns making up the interior of the then-slumbering volcanic peak. The legendary narrative ends with the JSDF purposefully bombarding Mt. Aso with firepower specifically calculated to cause the volcano to become active again, supposedly resulting in the lava consuming the majestic flying kaiju within. There is recorded evidence of a big Japanese military operation at Mt. Aso around the specified date (which varies in the accounts), and the volcano is known to have erupted during that operation, but the government issued a press release explaining that there was a large training exercise around the mountain that inadvertently set off the volcano. The truth of the conflicting claims have never been resolved by kaiju investigators, despite a small department at Wold Newton University dedicated to such studies. 

          Next, let’s examine the legend of Mothra (Mosura in Japanese), despite the spiritual and nature-friendly aspect of this legend, as opposed to the apocalyptic imagery surrounding that of Godzilla. Let’s also note that the legend of Godzilla has been incorporated into the theology surrounding the Paganistic worship of Mothra, which is described on this official website (now under process of reconstruction). Godzilla is referred to in this faith as “the sacred beast of the apocalypse,” and other kaiju that Mothra allegedly protects the Earth from, according to proponents of her theology, includes a spectacularly huge and powerful three-headed flying dragon-like monster called King Ghidorah, who may have a metaphysical connection to the legendary eight-headed Japanese dragon Orochi; a "dark" male counterpart dedicated to protecting the planet from the "blight" of humanity, known as Battra; and the mythological bipedal dragon-like beast wielding tremendous elemental power with a similar planetary protective instinct resulting in a hostility to humanity known as Bagan.[viii]

Mothra is a kaiju who is allegedly an aspect of Mother Earth Herself, and appeared in the legends of the ancient people from Infant Island--which is the center of the Kaiju of Peace’s mythos--and she was later described in some detail in Takehiko Fukunaga’s book The Luminous Fairies and Mothra. All of this underscores the mystical nature of this gigantic insectoid being, which may possibly make her of distinct origin from the insectoid giants scientifically created by ancient Lemurian genetic engineering. This is especially true since the legends claim that if Mothra should corporeally manifest in either her larval or imago (adult) stage, her size, power, and level of invulnerability would rival that of Godzilla, something the typical pseudo-insect giant of Lemurian genetic manufacture cannot claim. The religion centering around Mothra has flourished in Pagan circles throughout the world outside Infant Island beginning at the Millennium, continuing throughout the first decade of the 21^st century, and now into the second.

          Mothra, like Godzilla and Rodan, may be nothing more than a legend connected to the realm of ancient superstition, Jungian archetypes, and alternative spirituality, but there were reports of an incident that besiged both Tokyo, Japan and Los Angeles, USA, in 1961 that was attributed to a corporeally manifested Mothra, according to two separate reports, one filed by legendary maverick journalist Zenichiro “Bulldog” Fukuda, and the other by noted linguist Prof. Shinichi Chujo.[ix] According to their collective reports, a particularly corrupt American capitalist named Clark Nelson financed a mission in 1961 to the mystery-ridden atoll of Infant Island in the South Pacific, while Fukuda and Chujo accompanied the crew on that mission. They were said to all encounter an enclave of wise but primitive natives living in a safe oasis in the center of the radiation-ravaged island who worshipped Mothra as a sacred manifestation of the Mother Goddess of the Earth. Their priestesses were an alleged generational duo of identical twin, telepathically connected adolescent girls, who both stood no more than 12 inches in height, and who greeted the interlopers peacefully; these twins were nicknamed the “Shobijin” (Japanese for “little beauties”) by Fukuda, a name that appears to have caught on with modern worshippers of the kaiju-cum-deity. However, Clark abducted the girls to display for profit in Japan, and this caused a giant larval Mothra of truly incredible size to emerge from an egg-like construct on the island and head for Japan.

      After being severely injured by a barrage of military weaponry following a reportedly destructive trek through the island nation in search of the captive Shobijin, the larval Mothra cocooned herself atop Tokyo Tower, to emerge soon afterwards in her majestic imago (adult) form. After her emergence from the cocoon in flying adult form, she quickly flew to Los Angeles, USA, where Clark had fled with the Shobijin (in Mothra’s official theology, America is generously referred to by the code name “Rosilica,” and Los Angeles as “New Kirk City,” to avoid any suggestion of animosity towards Americans by the worldwide followers of this peaceful religion). Following Mothra's (alleged) brief destructive flight through LA, Nelson was shot dead after opening fire on police officers who attempted to arrest him, and the Shobijin were peacefully returned to Infant Island by Mothra. 

          In the reports that have since been collected into book form by a member of the Ikeda clan, who is one of the lead practitioners of worship for Mothra outside of the people who are said to inhabit Infant Island, the spiritual center of worship for this particular faith. If these reports have any truth to them, the sheer physical size of Mothra and the scale of her destruction were clearly exaggerated, as were some of the energy-manipulating powers attributed to her in the theology, but which were not in evidence according to the actual reports. However, it’s curious that the Japanese Self Defense Force (JSDF) began developing an advanced new form of energy-based weaponry known as masers (also called Markelite technology) soon after the destructive event of Tokyo in 1954, and a prototype of maser weaponry was said to have been used (albeit unsuccessfully) against Mothra while pupating in her cocoon atop Tokyo Tower.

     It’s interesting to consider that the JSDF would develop such exotic weaponry at precisely this point in time, and it supposedly did so with financial and technological assistance from both the USA and Great Britain, both of whom claimed some reports of giant monster assaults, with Britain alleging an attack on London in that era by a genuine daikaiju--which the reports dubbed Ogra--said to be the mother of a much smaller sample of megafauna captured by English seamen called Gorgo, after a legendary sea beast by that name (note the ubiquitous nature of such legends across the globe).[x] Could the development of maser technology in Japan be construed as evidence that special measures were being taken by the Japanese government—with the assistance of the international community--against possible further kaiju incursions into Japan, and perhaps elsewhere? The jury is still very much out on that one, but it’s an intriguing hypothesis to consider.

          What about reports of kaiju activity in Japan after 1961? Reports exist, but they are sparse, and again, unconfirmed. Prof. Charles Loridans of Wold Newton University and founder of MONSTAAH acquired a report describing an alleged gigantic version of the Frankenstein Monster active around the Mt. Fuji area circa 1965. This being was said to be the result of the irradiated heart of one of the copycats of the man-made monster patched together and brought to life by Dr. Victor Frankenstein being devoured by an almost feral homeless boy living amongst the ruins of Hiroshima. This boy supposedly mutated into an incredibly strong giant with great regenerative properties as a result, and during his mostly secretive jaunts through the wooded areas surrounding Mt. Fuji, living off the land, he encountered a huge predatory subterranean reptilian creature dubbed Baragon by the reports (for want of a better name), and battled this beast in the defense of report compilers Dr. James Bowen and his assistants, Sueko Tagami and Kenichiro Kawaji. The giant Frankenstein Monster was said to defeat Baragon by breaking its neck, only to then soon be destroyed by some mishap that is subject to conflicting accounts (which varies from a sudden freak earthquake to being pulled beneath a bracket water lake during a battle with a giant octopus).

        The following year, a severed piece of the giant Frankenstein Monster’s body that ended up underwater was said to have grown into a towering, grotesque semi-humanoid aquatic giant dubbed Gaira, who was said to terrorize the countryside of Japan by devouring human beings until the creature was taken out by now perfected maser technology.[xi] It should be noted that the reported size and power of creatures like Baragon and Gaira were quite a bit less than that of legendary monsters like Godzilla and Mothra, and in fact, Baragon may have been no larger than the Rhedosaurus, if that.

                    There is also the evidence in a report by researcher Prof. Matthew Dennion entitled "The Most Dreadful Monster" (printed in Tales of the Shadowmen: Agents Provocateurs, Black Coat Press, 2012). This was a report Prof. Dennion compiled of Madame Atomos, the notorious and powerful Japanese crimelord whose demented brilliance and resourcefulness was driven by a megalomaniacal obsession with taking vengeance upon America due to the Truman administration's decision to end World War II by dropping atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. This ushered the world into what has often been called the Atomic Age, and according to reports, the kaiju began their depredations on Japan (and occasionally elsewhere) soon afterwards. Madame Atomos was cited in this report as having part of her ire towards America stemming from the emergence of the daikaiju as a result of the atom bomb tests in the Pacific during the 1940s.

          Now, we must ask the proverbial million dollar question:  If Godzilla did attack and lay waste to the city of Tokyo in 1954, and Mothra did manifest and make speedy incursions into Tokyo and Los Angeles in 1961, followed by other sparingly scattered stories of kaiju activity in the '50s, '60s, and possibly in the ‘70s--as well as more in 1999 into the early ‘00s[xii]--then how could all of this evidence have been covered up so effectively, so as to apparently exist only as figments of modern legends and the realm of contemporary industrial age mythology?

          Since the existence of daikaiju has been renounced by even such renowned Wold Newton University scholars like Prof. Win Scott Eckert, who is readily familiar with the multitude of fantastic beings and realms that co-inhabit our world “under the radar” of the general public, if a cover-up did occur, then it was on quite a massive scale. Could it have been accomplished? I currently have no proof, but I speculate that it is indeed possible. There have been reports for over a century of powerful secret government agencies—who have code names like C.I.A.L.D., the Ordnance, G-Force, and others—who were said to use their vast resources and media influence to remove virtually all provable traces of actual covert invasions of our world by extraterrestrials, specifically two that occurred in England circa 1898 and 1956 respectively, as well as more clandestine alien invasions from contingents of beings known as the “Greys,” and from a world known as Ummo, the latter of which infiltrated and partially brought about the temporary collapse of MONSTAAH.

         I theorize that the main reason for such a massive effort being channeled into a cover-up of such magnitude was to prevent worldwide panic, and a breakdown of  all of our revered social institutions that depend upon humanity living in relative comfort from the belief that the human race dominates the world, and is not at the mercy of any greater, materially manifested conscious forces. We are often subject to the annual devastation caused by forces of nature like hurricanes and earthquakes, along with the known possibility of being subjected to an extinction level collision with an Apollo asteroid, but the powers-that-be in government (not to be confused with the real Powers That Be) have decreed that these concerns are not the same as humanity fearing purposeful assaults from living beings outside of our species, or at least beings that closely simulate life as we know it. We have a vested interest in believing that we are top dog amongst all living and conscious beings on this world, and if this comforting belief is lost, mass anarchy could result, and traditional means of authority in our status quo could rapidly break down—or so our ruling officials have apparently decreed to be the case.

     Thanks to some research conducted by fellow kaiju scholars--including Ivan Ronald Schablotski--who were generous enough to pass my way, they have unearthed the existence of more secretive international government bureaus that seem designed to cover the existence of something big, including the manufacture of facetious stories to account for sometimes considerable amounts of destruction.  This includes a British organization referred to as the DMOA, which operates as a top secret branch of that nation's Ministry of Defense, and the Norwegian government org known as the TSS, which has been connected to the disappearance of a small group of college students seeking to create a documentary in 2010. 

          Thus, it’s my conjecture that if daikaiju do actually exist, their appearances throughout history, including the late 20^th century into the present--it is late 2011 as I type these words, the dawn of the second decade of the 21^st century--have been very rare, and have never reached a worldwide level of catastrophe to the degree seen in various alternate realities perceived in trance by psychic investigators, including the alternate Earth described in detail by author Marc Cerasini, as well as others reported by various authors in comic books published by Marvels Comics, Dark Horse Comics, and IDW Comics from the late ‘70s to the present. Further, if daikaiju did—or do—in fact exist, then the evidence is minimal because they were covered up by the same agencies who similarly covered up both overt and covert alien invasions in modern history, and for essentially the same purpose.

          Further research will be conducted by this author and others in the controversial sub-realm of kaiju studies, and hopefully better and possibly even substantive evidence will eventually be uncovered to support the actual existence of daikaiju despite their obvious rarity.

          In the meantime, we have no proof of the existence of such incredible creatures, but simply some fantastic ancient and modern legends to contemplate and be fascinated by.