What a Monster Can Teach Us About the Planet
A Letter from Planted Society’s Executive Director
Long before he became the blockbuster icon we know, Godzilla, originally called "Gojira" in the 1954 film, embodied the trauma that lingered in Japan following the US hydrogen bomb test that filled the air with radioactive ash in March of that year. The Japanese people had already lived through Hiroshima and Nagasaki less than ten years earlier, so the sight of fallout from the bomb test drifting across the Pacific reopened a fresh wound. This new ash exposed fishermen and carried contamination into local markets across Japan. It reignited the fear that human choices had invited something far bigger than anyone could control. People needed a symbol that could capture what words could not.
Enter Godzilla.
The message of the monster is still relevant seventy years later. As professor of Japanese language and literature Jeffrey Angles writes, “Godzilla is a perfect metaphor for what is happening now in the Anthropocene. Humankind has wounded nature so seriously that nature has no choice but to fight back.”
When our actions disrupt the ecosystem, nature absorbs the impact first, and communities feel the consequences soon after. Something that also gives us hope is the knowledge that nature heals when people give it room. We learn again and again that balance can return when we choose to prioritize it, and we remind ourselves that nature may force that balance if we refuse to change.
The idea of personal choice is something we think about every day at Planted Society. When we help cities create food environments where climate-friendly options are part of the everyday landscape, we remove some of the pressure to do the right thing. And we truly believe that if we work together, we can build a world where sustainable choices feel instinctive.
This brings us to why we chose Godzilla as this year’s symbol of progress for 2025.
We are excited to celebrate this message through the theme of our 2025 donor thank you merch, exclusively designed by Austin, Texas artist @buzzardxbait. This is our way of thanking the donors who are able to give $150 or more to our year-end fundraiser. The design honors the storytellers who warned us, the communities who are rewriting the narrative, and people like you who are choosing to fight on nature’s side.
Hope is a choice, and it’s something we can practice together.
In Community,
Britty Mann
Executive Director
Planted Society
P.S. If you’re like me and love doing a deep-dive, I highly recommend these two links for further reading.
Toho Kingdom’s 2023 interview with Jeffrey Angles on translating Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again.
DePaul University’s 2024 interview with Yuki Miyamoto on the socio-political history of Godzilla.