Red Bamboo

Red Bamboo Leader Red Bamboo Commander Pawns Ebirah, Giant Condor Homeworld Earth (Letchi Island) Enemies Infant Islanders First appearance Ebirah, Horror of the Deep

The Red Bamboo (赤イ竹,   Akai Take) is a terrorist organization featured in the 1966 Godzilla film, Ebirah, Horror of the Deep.

Name

The English name "Red Bamboo" is a direct translation of the organization's Japanese name, 赤イ竹 (Akai Take). In the book Godzilla 1954-1999 Super Complete Works, their English name is misspelled as Red Bumboo.

History

Showa Series

Ebirah, Horror of the Deep

The size and origins of the Red Bamboo are unknown, but at least part of the organization was settled on Letchi Island in the south Pacific, which they used to manufacture nuclear weapons. The Red Bamboo were able to manipulate Ebirah and the Giant Condor, two creatures mutated by the nuclear waste produced by their operations, to a limited extent so they could use them to guard the island from ships and planes respectively. To protect their own supply ship from being destroyed by Ebirah, the Red Bamboo developed a fluid from the fruits on Letchi Island that repelled the shrimp monster. To produce the fluid in large amounts, the Red Bamboo took slaves from the native population of Infant Island to produce it for them.

Unfortunately for the Red Bamboo, the passengers of one ship destroyed by Ebirah had survived, and made for the island. After being chased by the Red Bamboo across the island, they hid in the cave system of the island. Inside the caves, they discovered Godzilla, dormant after the monster's fight with King Ghidorah the previous year. Ignoring the dormant behemoth, the survivors attempted to raid the Red Bamboo base themselves. This failed; three of them (Yoshimura, Dayo and Ichino) escaped while one (Ryota) became caught on a balloon and drifted away, and the final one (Nita) was captured and enslaved.

The Red Bamboo mobilized their whole security force to find the three whom escaped, and the three responded by forming a plan to awaken Godzilla. Ryota managed to land on Infant Island, where he and his lost brother (Yata) took a small rowboat back to Devil's Island, while Nita convinced his fellow slaves to produce a fake fluid that wouldn't repel Ebirah. As Ryota and Yata approached the island, a storm hit, and a lightning strike traveled along a copper wire attached to Godzilla to awaken him.

For the Red Bamboo, all hell broke loose. Ebirah fought and was defeated by Godzilla. During this battle, one of their machine gun turrets was destroyed, lessening security. As the survivors were located and chased up the mountain, Godzilla appeared and scared the army back across the island. Directly after this, Godzilla fought and killed the Giant Condor. Becoming desperate, the Red Bamboo threw their entire air force at him, only to have it reduced to scrap without doing any harm to the nuclear leviathan. Godzilla finally made an assault on the Red Bamboo base itself. Although they managed to hold the giant off with a electric fence for a few moments, Godzilla pushed through and destroyed the entire base. As a final attempt to destroy Godzilla, the Red Bamboo activated their nuclear arsenal and fled, hoping Godzilla would be killed.

As the Red Bamboo began their retreat, they took the false fluid to spray from their ship, and were all dragged to a watery grave by Ebirah. Godzilla then fought Ebirah one more time, managing to remove both of the shrimp's claws and forcing it into retreat. Mothra arrived on the island and had a brief battle with Godzilla before she took away all the slaves and survivors from the island. Mere seconds before the nuclear detonation, Godzilla jumped into the sea below, and managed to survive the blast. With Godzilla surviving, and all the slaves rescued by Mothra, the sacrifice of the Red Bamboo's lives was rendered worthless.

Gallery

• Red Bamboo Ship.jpg

  A Red Bamboo Ship

• 

  Red Bamboo Fighter Jets

Trivia

• The Red Bamboo likely has some tie to China, reflected by its name and possession of Shenyang J-6 fighter jets. The Red Bamboo Commander makes a reference to receiving orders from headquarters, suggesting that the group answers to some higher authority.