Lagos Island
Lagos Island (ラゴス島 Ragosutō) is a fictional Pacific island that is featured in the 1991 Godzilla film Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah. It is a small island located in the Marshall Islands between the larger islands Luol and Kwajalein. During World War II, a Japanese garrison led by Major Yasuaki Shindo occupied the island amidst an attack from American forces. While garrisons on the neighboring Marshall Islands were wiped out, the outnumbered Lagos garrison was saved when a Godzillasaurus living on the island drove back the American landing forces. The surviving Japanese soldiers left the dinosaur to presumably die of its wounds, though it would later be transformed into Godzilla after being exposed to the blast of the Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb test conducted at nearby Bikini Atoll in 1954.
Name
The island's name is rendered in English as "Ragos" on a map of the Marshall Islands shown in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah. Despite this, Omni Productions' international English dub and most official English-language materials opt to romanize it it as "Lagos."
History
Heisei era
Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah
A small island located in the Marshall Island chain, Lagos Island was the site of a fierce battle between American and Japanese forces during World War II in 1944. A small Japanese garrison led by Major Yasuaki Shindo took up refuge in a cave on the island, while the majority of Japan's forces in the Marshall Islands were wiped out. Refusing to surrender, Shindo and his men launched a strike on the American forces at dawn. As the battle raged, both armies were suddenly halted by the sound of a deafening roar. The jungle began to shake as a huge dinosaur emerged from the trees. The Americans opened fire on the dinosaur, but their bullets had no effect outside of enraging the creature. The dinosaur trampled some of the soldiers to death and pursued them to the shoreline while the Japanese garrison watched in awe. When the dinosaur came within sight of the American battleships waiting offshore, they opened fire on it, drawing blood and causing it to collapse. As the American forces surrounded the fallen dinosaur, it stirred back to life and resumed its attack, prompting the Americans to retreat. The wounded dinosaur then returned to the jungle, where it collapsed. Shindo and his garrison approached the fallen dinosaur and saluted it, thanking it for saving their lives and expressing their regret that they could not take it back to safety. The Japanese garrison then left, leaving the dinosaur to presumably die of its wounds.
However, a group of people from the year 1992, accompanied by Futurian Emmy Kano and her android M11, had been watching these events unfold from a distance. Emmy's cohorts had concluded that this dinosaur would be exposed to an H-bomb test at nearby Bikini Atoll in 1954, mutating it into Godzilla. Intending to prevent Godzilla's creation, M11 used KIDS to transport the wounded Godzillasaurus to the Bering Sea. Secretly, Emmy left behind three small genetically engineered pets called Dorats on the island before the ship returned to 1992. In 1954, the Dorats were exposed to the nuclear test in the dinosaur's place and merged together into the monster King Ghidorah, which became the pawn of the Futurians in the present day in a bid to bring Japan to its knees before it could become an economic superpower in the 23rd century.
All was not as it seemed though, as the Godzillasaurus in the Bering Sea was later exposed to radiation from a Russian nuclear submarine crash either in or before 1984, transforming it into Godzilla in the altered timeline.
Nearby islands
- Rongelap (north)
- Bikini (northwest)
- Rongerik (northeast)
- Likiep (southeast)
- Kwajalein (south)
- Luol (mentioned in dialogue, direction unspecified)
- Wotho (southwest)
- Ailinginoe (west)
Gallery
Lagos Island on a map
Comments
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