Tokyo

Tokyo (東京,   Tōkyō), formally Tokyo Metropolis (東京都,   Tōkyō-to) is the capital of Japan, as well as one of the nation's 47 prefectures and the most populous metropolitan area in the world. Naturally, it has appeared in numerous kaiju films, whether as a primary setting or merely in passing.

Name

Tokyo was originally known as "Edo", meaning "estuary." Its name was changed to Tokyo (Tōkyō: tō (east) + kyō (capital)) when it became the de facto imperial capital in 1868.

History

Showa Series

Godzilla (1954)

Godzilla, after being discovered on Odo Island, was the subject of a discussion held at the National Diet Building by Kyohei Yamane and a group of islanders. Yamane explained to members of the Japanese government that Godzilla had been resting below the waters of the South Pacific since the Jurassic period, and had likely been awoken by nuclear tests conducted in the region.

Unknown to everyone there, Godzilla had began journeying towards Japan after the JMSDF attempted to use depth-charges to kill him. Unfortunately, these weapons failed to injure the kaiju, and instead only angered him. Several days after the expedition to Odo Island concluded, Godzilla rose out of Tokyo Bay at night, terrifying a group of people aboard a cruise ship, before sinking back below the water. The following evening, Godzilla left the water again and this time came ashore, attacking the neighboring city of Shinagawa, causing much destruction and death before returning to the bay. A barrier constructed from thousands of high-voltage pylons was then placed around the city in an attempt to defend it should Godzilla surface again, but these proved ultimately useless when Godzilla rose out of Tokyo Bay once more and melted the pylons with his atomic breath. Godzilla then entered Tokyo and quickly began to destroy it, reducing it to a sea of flames in a matter of hours.

After Godzilla left much of the city in ruins, two F-86 Sabres were mobilized in a last-ditch attempt to drive Godzilla back. The jet fighters unloaded their arsenal of missiles on Godzilla, but the giant monster gave no reaction to the counterattack. With no ammunition left and barely enough fuel to return to base, the jets were forced to fly away as Godzilla returned to the ocean yet again. The death toll from the attack was massive, but the residual radiation left behind by Godzilla's assault on the city would go on to kill many more.

Varan

Professor Sugimoto's biology laboratory was based in Tokyo. It was from this lab that two of Sugimoto's students left on a research trip to the Tohoku region of Northern Japan. Kenji Uozaki, Yuriko Shinjo and Horiguchi then departed from Tokyo for Iwaya Village to discover what really happened to the first research team. The JSDF later sent several representatives to Sugimoto's lab to consult the professor on how to stop Varan, and the Varan Countermeasures Unit was likewise based in the capital city.

Varan itself briefly entered Tokyo from Tokyo Bay at Haneda Airport but an all-out offensive from the JSDF was successful in preventing more damage to the city, thanks in large part to the bravery of Uozaki and the expertise of Professor Sugimoto.

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster

After King Ghidorah emerged from his egg that landed down on Earth, he is later seen wreaking havoc on the city of Tokyo during a press meeting is held at the National Diet Building, blasting the city apart with his gravity beams, the Tokyo Tower was later destroyed after King Ghidorah flew through it, leaving the city in ruins.

Millennium Series

Godzilla: Final Wars

After many battles with the Xiliens' mind-controlled monsters, Godzilla was brought to Tokyo Bay where he fought and easily defeated Hedorah and Ebirah. The Gotengo attacked the Xilien Mothership, but was unable to penetrate its shields and found itself occupied by Xilien Fighters. Katsunori Kazama took a Dogfighter and managed destroy the Mothership's generator in a suicide attack, allowing the Gotengo to drill through to the core of the ship and attempt to fire the Maser Cannon. However, the Xiliens teleported on board and killed all of the non-essential crew members, bringing Shinichi Ozaki, Miyuki Otonashi, and Captain Douglas Gordon before the Controller of Planet X. The Controller revealed that the Xiliens aimed to harvest the mitochondria in human cells to survive and were simply demolishing civilization to show humanity its place as "cattle." He also revealed that he and Ozaki were Keizers, the result of humans and Xiliens interbreeding in the past. This is what allowed Ozaki to initially resist the Controller's influence over the Earth Defense Force's Mutants. However, this time the Controller was able to control Ozaki and forced him to attack his allies. Fortunately, Miyuki freed Ozaki from the Controller's influence using the Shobijin's sacred dagger. United Nations Secretary General Naotoro Daigo and EDF Commander Akiko Namikawa escaped captivity aboard the ship and managed to unite with Ozaki and his allies and begin fighting the Xiliens' forces. The Controller meanwhile had summoned the real Gorath asteroid to Earth. Godzilla shot it down with his atomic breath, leveling most of Tokyo in the process, only for its true purpose to become clear once Monster X levitated down from the sky. As Godzilla battled Monster X in Tokyo, the EDF members fought their way back to the Gotengo ran while Ozaki battled the Controller. The Modified Gigan was unleashed to assist Monster X against Godzilla, but Mothra arrived to hold him off, eventually destroying him in a kamikaze attack. Gordon helped his allies defeat the Xiliens trying to stop them and successfully reached the Gotengo, while Ozaki defeated the Controller. However, the Controller rigged the Mothership to explode, and Ozaki barely escaped aboard the Gotengo before it self-destructed. With the Xiliens defeated, Godzilla and Monster X engaged in a beam lock that blasted them both backward. Monster X then transformed into Keizer Ghidorah and turned the battle in his favor, mercilessly tossing Godzilla around the ruins of Tokyo like a ragdoll. As Keizer Ghidorah lifted Godzilla and began to siphon his energy, Ozaki used the Gotengo's Maser Cannon to transfer his Keizer energy into Godzilla, allowing him to free himself from Keizer Ghidorah's grip. The re-energized Godzilla swiftly destroyed two of his enemy's three heads before throwing him into the air and obliterating him with his red spiral atomic breath. After the battle, Godzilla shot down the Gotengo, forcing the crew to exit the craft and confront him. However, Minilla arrived in Tokyo and stood in front of Godzilla, holding out his arms and convincing him to stand down and end his war with humanity. Godzilla obliged and departed the city with Minilla, while Ozaki and his allies looked on.

Post-Millennium Series

Shin Godzilla

When the Japanese Coast Guard investigated a small yacht floating in Tokyo Bay, it found the craft abandoned with no sign of a struggle or the owner's whereabouts. Suddenly, the water began to erupt and steam as a strange red liquid flooded the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line. The Japanese government concluded that the disaster was due to an underwater volcanic eruption, but assistant cabinet secretary Rando Yaguchi proposed it was a gigantic living creature, citing footage he had found online. His colleagues dismissed his claims until a huge tail burst out of the bay. As Prime Minister Seiji Okouchi assured the populace that the creature would not surface, he made landfall in Tokyo's Kamata district, stumbling around on his hind legs and pushing himself forward with his tail. After toppling an apartment building, he suddenly reared up on his hind legs and sprouted arms. Okouchi deployed helicopters to attack the beast, only to call them off when he learned civilians were still evacuating the area. As they flew away, the monster returned to the sea.

The Japanese government immediately began formulating strategies to deal with the monster should it return. One informal group including Yaguchi discovered increased radiation levels in the areas Godzilla had rampaged through. An American presidential envoy, Kayoco Anne Patterson, soon contacted them, offering intelligence in exchange for help locating a professor named Goro Maki. The National Police Agency couldn't find him, but discovered that he was the owner of the abandoned yacht. Patterson revealed that Maki was researching the creature for the U.S. Department of Energy when he was still living on the seafloor. The name he gave him read as "Gojira" in Japanese and "Godzilla" in English, meaning "God incarnate" in his hometown of Odo Island. Godzilla, an ancient species of marine life, had mutated after feeding on barrels of nuclear waste deposited in Tokyo Bay in the 1950's. This helped confirm Hiromi Ogashira's theory that he sustained himself through nuclear fission. As a result, he had overheated on land and dove into Tokyo Bay to cool off. Yaguchi's group brainstormed a potential way to defeat him: shut off his internal cooling system. They began to develop the Yaguchi Plan, revolving around a coagulant.

Shortly afterward, Godzilla surfaced in Kamakura and shrugged off a JSDF assault as he reentered Tokyo. With Okouchi's approval, the United States sent three B-2 Spirit stealth bombers to drop bunker buster bombs on Godzilla, visibly injuring him. In response, Godzilla's dorsal fins began glowing purple, and he unleashed an atomic beam from his mouth, obliterating the bombers, the helicopter carrying the Prime Minister and many of his Cabinet members, and large swaths of Tokyo. After expending such a huge amount of energy, Godzilla stopped moving near Tokyo Station and entered a state of hibernation. Yaguchi and his team, all lower-ranking officials evacuating by cars and eventually on foot, survived.

Though Godzilla shot down any drone that approached him, JSDF members were able to obtain cell samples from the bombing run to test the coagulant on. Labs analyzing the samples discovered that large pieces of Godzilla were capable of evolving and potentially taking on lives of their own. Earth could be overrun by a horde of Godzillas if he wasn't stopped in his present form. With this revelation, the United States gave the Japanese government two weeks to evacuate Tokyo, after which they would drop a hydrogen bomb onto Godzilla as part of a United Nations task force. Yaguchi's team scrambled to execute their plan, renamed Operation Yashiori, before this could come to pass. Apart from the help they found throughout Japan, they also obtained Chinese tank trunks, French diplomatic stalling, German processing power, and American firepower.

Operation Yashiori woke up Godzilla a few hours early by detonating trains full of explosives at his feet. From there, waves of drones drew his fire until he ran out of energy. Cruise missiles and planted explosives dropped nearby buildings onto him, knocking him to the ground. Using concrete pump trucks, JSDF troops force-fed Godzilla the blood coagulant. Though he fought back, they were able to freeze over his entire body just in time, leaving him in a state of suspended animation. With Operation Yashiori a success, the Americans called off their nuclear strike, though they warned they would resume their countdown if Godzilla reawakened. Scientists concluded that the half-life of his unique radioactive isotope was only 20 days, allowing Tokyo to recover quickly from the nuclear fallout.

Gallery

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  Godzilla is subdued by the Super X in Shinjuku The Return of Godzilla

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  Mecha-King Ghidorah battles Godzilla in Shinjuku in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah

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  Mothra emerges from her cocoon on the National Diet Building in Godzilla vs. Mothra

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  Godzilla faces off against Destoroyah in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah

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  Godzilla and Orga fight in Tokyo in Godzilla 2000: Millennium

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  Godzilla attacks Tokyo in Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.

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  Godzilla and Monster X fight in Tokyo in Godzilla: Final Wars

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  Godzilla fires his atomic breath in Shin Godzilla

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