In Godzilla's Footsteps: Japanese Pop Culture Icons on the Global Stage, edited by William M. Tsutsui and Michiko Ito

In Godzilla's Footsteps is a collection of scholarly articles that examine both the significance of Japanese popular culture to the Japanese, and investigates what makes them popular in the West. The articles use Godzilla as a case study, since it was the first Japanese pop culture icon that became popular in the United States as well. Many of the articles focus on the social messages in the movie Godzilla regarding weapons of mass destruction and nuclear testing, which were all but taken out in the dubbed version, and many of the articles focus on how these pop culture icons became a phenomenon abroad, not only in the United States, but also in places like Russia.

In Godzilla's Foosteps is not merely informative about the significance of Godzilla; it also demonstrates an effective means of inquiry into the pop culture of any society. Rather than looking at it as pure entertainment, this collection of articles examines them in their historical and societal background and searches for the deeper meaning behind it. Two key articles are "Mobilizing Gojira: Mourning Modernity as Monstrosity" and "Lost in Translation and Morphed in Transit: Godzilla in Cold War America," but many of the other articles are worth reading and informative. Teachers may be particularly interested in the article "Teaching Godzilla: Classroom Encounters with a Cultural Icon."

Discussion Questions:

• Pick a pop culture icon from your own culture; it could be something you are personally interested in, or something the majority of people around you are interested in. What does it mean to people from your culture? What does it mean to people from other cultures?