01 Godzilla appears in Antarctica
In 1954, the Godzilla film came out, directed by Japanese director Honta Inoshiro.
As soon as the film came out, it was a huge success. The year the movie "Godzilla" was released, it was well received by the audience and the attendance rate was extremely high.
Since then, Godzilla has become the world's most famous giant monster.
In recent years, Movies related to Godzilla have emerged in an endless stream. For example, "Godzilla 2: King of the Monsters" released in 2019 is the sequel to "Godzilla" screened in 2014.
Movies related to Godzilla are always loved by people, and the box office of movies is also very high.
Godzilla is famous, but no one has ever seen Godzilla, and there is no real image associated with it. Therefore, over time, people have a question: Is there really a Godzilla in the world?
Faced with such a question, most people will say flatly, no!
But the 1958 Antarctic Godzilla incident shook these affirmative answerers.
What's going on here? Let's get to the truth together.
On February 13, 1958, the Sogu, carrying an Antarctic expedition, patrolled the Antarctic offshore area.
Munakata, the name comes from the word "Munakata" in the Soya Strait between Cape Munakata and Birch Tai in northern Hokkaido.
The Munakata was an icebreaker in Japan. It was originally a merchant ship, but its use has changed over time.
It changed from merchant ships to special agent ships, from special agent ships to patrol ships, and finally from inspection ships to Antarctic observation ships.
In 1956, as Japan participated in the International Year of Earth Observation, it was necessary to send relevant personnel to the South Pole for observation.
And antarctica, a place covered by glaciers. Japan must be equipped with a well-equipped and technologically advanced Antarctic observation ship to successfully enter the Antarctic and complete the observation task.
Originally, Japan planned to use the "Soya Maru" as an Antarctic observation ship, because this ship was far stronger than the "Sogu" in terms of ice-breaking capacity and manpower.
However, considering the budget for the renovation and the structure of the ship, Japan finally chose the Sogaya as the Antarctic observation ship.
The "Munakata" thus won the competition and began its journey to the South Pole.
On the afternoon of February 13, 1958, the "Zonggu" had been sailing in the Antarctic coastal area for some time and did not detect anything unusual.
But around 5 p.m., something strange happened.
A crew member on a kanban board found a black unidentified object about 300 meters away from the "Munakata".
In addition to Japan, which participated in the International Year of Earth Observation that year, there were other countries such as the United States that participated in the International Year of Earth Observation. The sailing route of each country is basically the same.
Before the Zonggu passed through this place, the U.S. Antarctic observation ship Burton Island also passed through this place.
Therefore, seeing this dark shadow, the crew did not panic.
He thought it was just a scrap iron drum discarded by a U.S. Antarctic observation ship as it passed through the area. As long as you avoid this obstacle while sailing, it will not have any impact on the navigation of the ship.
The "Zonggu" continued to travel forward.
But as the ship got closer to the black object, the crew noticed that things didn't seem to be as simple as they thought. Because the shape of this black object has nothing to do with the shape of the scrap iron barrel.
As the distance grew closer, the crew found that the size of the black object was getting larger and larger, incredibly large.
The crew wondered, isn't this a scrap iron barrel? With this thought, the crew picked up the telescope next to them, trying to see the true face of the black object through the telescope.
What he saw through the telescope surprised him.
This black object where is the scrap iron barrel, this is an unknown creature!
Moreover, this unknown creature also has eyes and ears. The crew saw this and blurted out "Godzilla."
In 1958, four years had passed since the release of the first Godzilla movie.
At that time, almost all the Japanese people had seen this movie, and they were naturally impressed by the behemoth "Godzilla" in the movie.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the Japanese crew shouted the three words "Godzilla" when confronted with such a huge unknown creature.
After confirming that they had seen the face of the unknown creature, the crew hurried to speak to their companions. Hearing such a strange scene, the companion next to him immediately picked up the camera and wanted to photograph this behemoth.
In order to be able to better capture the full picture of the unknown creature, he found the camera and quickly ran to the bridge. It is the best place to photograph unidentified creatures.
But when he returned to the bridge, he looked up to find that the black object that was not far away had long since disappeared. In front of the ship, there was no unsightly black creature.
At that time, the crew of the "Zonggu" all saw this strange scene.
The news of "Godzilla in Antarctica" became a hot news at that time, and everyone talked about it. The crew, on the other hand, were interviewed and told in front of the camera what they had seen and heard on the ship.
At that time, the captain of the "Sogu" Matsumoto Manji wrote about this strange experience in his book "Antarctic Transmission".
He wrote the article under the title "Antarctic Godzilla".
Matsumoto's records describe the event of "Antarctic Godzilla" in detail. Through this record, people can learn what happened at that time.
The "Antarctic Godzilla" event got its name from this.
02 Scientists' explanations
According to Matsumoto's records, the time from the time the black object appeared to the time it disappeared was only about 30 seconds. It is precisely because this behemoth only appeared for a short period of 30 seconds, so that people did not have time to take pictures related to it. The authenticity of this incident cannot be verified.
According to records, this behemoth had a pair of very large eyes, and its head was about 70-80 centimeters long. At that time, it only exposed its head to the surface of the water, so the size of its whole body could not be determined.
But based on a small portion of the outcrop, he guessed that the behemoth should have taken the form of a giant lizard.
Because the behemoth's head resembles a cuboid, and its back also has a serrated ridge, somewhat resembling the fins on the back of a fish. Moreover, there was not a trace of hair on this behemoth.
This made Matsumoto more certain of his conjecture: the behemoth was shaped like a lizard.
Some people suspect that the crew may have just mistook the outcropse of whales, seals and other creatures for this non-existent "Godzilla".
But based on the various features and facial shapes mentioned above, no one should think that such a creature is a whale and a seal, and it is not another huge marine creature.
Godzilla-related sightings are currently the only one in the world in 1958 in Antarctic Godzilla.
Unfortunately, the incident was only recorded in writing, and no video data was left.
However, in Matsumoto's book "Antarctic Transport", you see an illustration. The title of this illustration is "Godzilla's Sketch.".
The appearance of this illustration immediately aroused people's discussion. Everyone thought that this illustration was painted by Matsumoto Manji, who witnessed Godzilla. As a result, they thought that Godzilla looked like this.
But in 2004, Matsumoto's son responded to the illustration.
According to him, his father never drew a picture of Godzilla in front of his family and did not find a corresponding drawing in the family.
This "Godzilla Sketch", which appears in Antarctic Transmission, is not certain whether it was painted by his father, Manji Matsumoto.
This may simply be based on the description in Matsumoto's article and then drawn by the painter of the publishing house according to the picture in his own mind.
Antarctic Godzilla is just the content of people's after-dinner conversation. And for scientists, does Godzilla really exist? This question needs to be answered by them themselves.
As a result, many experts have intervened in this investigation to find out the truth of the matter.
They had visited godzilla several times to investigate, and neither under the water nor on the water had ever found the figure of "Godzilla" as the crew of the "Zonggu" called it.
Of course, in the 1950s, the depth of the ocean that humans could dive into was not very deep.
Therefore, the experts at that time could only investigate at the depths that could be dived, and whether Godzilla was hidden in the deepest part of the ocean, we do not know.
In short, the investigation at the time was nothing.
But how exactly should this incident be explained? Did Godzilla really appear in Antarctica?
At this time, some experts gave an explanation: collective illusion.
Collective hallucinations, also known as collective hysteria, have another name, collective hysteria.
Collective hysteria means that in a repressive and closed environment, the pressure in people's hearts will slowly accumulate and accumulate more and more. Stimulated by the external environment, people's hearts will become fragile.
At this time, people's psychology is extremely susceptible to external influences and accepts hints from the external environment or others. At the same time, with the collapse of the heart, this fear will spread widely.
There have been incidents of collective hysteria in history, the most famous of which is the "Dance Plague" in France.
In the Middle Ages, in Strasbourg, France, a woman suddenly screamed, laughed and danced for no apparent reason. Everyone around them thought the woman was strange, but everyone just thought it strange and didn't pay too much attention.
But this situation continued to the second person, and then it was out of control. The third, the fourth... In the end, hundreds of people saw this.
The "Dance Plague" event is famous because it killed more than 100 people.
After the "Dance Plague" incident, people also learned more about the disease of "collective hysteria".
At that time, the "Zonggu" was full of experienced and experienced crew, which meant that they had a lot of time at sea.
Living in a landless, directionless, depressing, closed environment for a long time, the pressure and boredom in the hearts of the crew are naturally a lot.
And coupled with the fact that the crew sails in Antarctica in winter, they encounter far more difficulties than sailing in other waters. For example, the ship is trapped by the sea surface ice floes, the temperature is too low, and so on.
At this time, it is not surprising that the situation of collective hysteria occurred to the crew of the "Zonggu".
Therefore, when they encounter an unknown object on the surface of the sea, due to excessive pressure and the influence of the closed external environment, it is possible to misidentify the existing organism.
But this explanation is not universally accepted, and most authoritative scientists do not accept the term "collective hysteria."
Because this is just the speculation of scientists, this is just one possibility? What if the crew really saw this? How does Godzilla explain it?
If it is a collective illusion, how can everyone imagine that the scenes are exactly the same?
Moreover, we all know that the crew of the "Sogu" are experienced sailors. Then for experienced people, living at sea for a long time is just a small thing for them.
Living at sea for a long time, it is indeed very likely that ordinary people will hallucinate due to excessive stress.
But for these experienced navigators, they have adapted to life at sea. Living at sea is no different to them than living on land.
How could they hallucinate so easily? Moreover, it does not seem reasonable that all the experienced crew members on the "Munaku" had hallucinations.
Of course, all of the above is just speculation, and there is no substantial evidence that the crew of the ship has a collective hallucination.
But at the same time, there is no evidence that Godzilla appeared in Antarctica. Unfortunately, in just 30 seconds of Godzilla's appearance, the crew did not have time to leave any image data, and everyone could not verify it.
If the crew had seized the 30 seconds and captured this historic moment, it would have been possible to examine whether the crew had a phenomenon of "collective hysteria."
Since the 1958 Antarctic Godzilla incident, no media reports of Godzilla-related events have been reported, and no one has ever seen Godzilla again. Does Godzilla really exist? It's all an unsolved puzzle.
03 Movie "Godzilla"
In addition to the collective hallucinations, other possibilities have been suggested.
The crew of the Sogu did see a black object on the surface of the sea at the time, but it was probably just a rare, giant sea creature.
Coupled with the fact that the image of "Godzilla" in the "Godzilla" movie at that time was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, in the face of such a huge unknown creature, the Japanese crew just happened to shout out the three words "Godzilla".
In the first Godzilla-related film released in 1954, Godzilla was set up as a giant monster.
Hondo ino Shiro created godzilla because of the fear of nuclear contamination.
In 1954, only nine years had passed since 1945, when Hiroshima, Japan, was hit by the atomic bomb.
Once the atomic bomb is dropped, nuclear contamination follows.
Nuclear pollution can persist for decades, and nuclear pollution cannot be completely eliminated in just 9 years. In addition, through books, television and other propaganda, the Japanese people have deeply understood the harm of nuclear pollution.
It is very likely to enter the human body with food, water, air and other channels. Living in an environment with nuclear contamination for a long time will greatly increase the incidence of cancer.
An incident at that time made the Japanese people more and more afraid of nuclear pollution.
An explosion occurred during the U.S. hydrogen bomb experiment, which exploded on a wide scale and involved a Japanese fishing boat that was hunting tuna at sea at the time. The explosion killed a Japanese fisherman.
Japan began to spread fear of nuclear weapons, and that fear grew.
In addition to being harmful to human beings, nuclear pollution will also have a great impact on the natural environment and natural organisms.
Long-term exposure of natural organisms to nuclear contamination is likely to produce mutations. From an existing creature to a creature unknown to human beings.
In the movie "Godzilla", Godzilla was polluted by nuclear radiation and mutated into a terrifying giant monster.
Godzilla was originally a dinosaur that lived during the Jurassic period, and it could survive in the ocean and inhabit land.
Dinosaurs between the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods were almost all extinct, but Godzilla is the surviving individual from this period. It has always lived in the depths of the ocean.
But because of the effects of nuclear weapons, Godzilla mutated. Originally asleep in the sea life, it began to appear frequently in the pacific ocean, and it began to attack passing cargo ships.
Later, Godzilla landed on The Land of Japan and destroyed the whole of Japan. In the movie Godzilla, Godzilla is finally destroyed by humans. This is the ending that everyone loves.
As soon as the film came out, it was very popular with the audience. In addition, Hollywood has also produced a number of Godzilla-related movies. Since then, Godzilla has become a symbol.
The image of Godzilla is deeply rooted in the hearts of the Japanese people, and the crew of the "Sogu" may have seen a sea creature that had never been seen before, so they called it "Godzilla".
The name "Godzilla" may not represent the giant monster Godzilla in the movie. It may just be a name for the behemoth.
We have no way of knowing what the truth is. However, there are many media reports of people finding giant creatures in the sea or lakes, but no one has taken a clear picture so far.
Therefore, people can't ask whether there really are giant monsters like Godzilla on our earth. This is still an unsolved puzzle.