Make Monsters, Not War!

Godzilla in recent history has been the symbol for many things, usually bad dubbing and actors in poorly constructed monster suits, but when Ishiro Honda's 1954 classic was originally released, it was meant to represent much more and serve as a powerful antiwar statement.
The original Godzilla, i.e. the Japanese version was heavily edited when it came to the states so as not to piss off veterans of WWII (and Raymond Burr was added to the US version as well). The Japanese version wasn't released in the states until Sept. 5th 2006. Because the origional and the Raymond Burr version are so different, they left the film with it's Japanese name, Gojira (but because I'm used to Godzilla, we'll stick to that to describe the monster in this post). It should be noted that as much of an antiwar statement as the origional film was, it only touches on weapons of mass destruction (i.e. nothing Japan did during the war).
Godzilla the monster is a metaphor for many things including nuclear weapons and the weapons race between America and The Soviet Union. One reason the reaction was so delayed was because American occupation of Japan after the war didn't end till April 28, 1952. Even after the occupation ended, Japan remained pretty quiet on the horrors of nuclear warfare until The Lucky Dragon Incident, wherein a Japanese fishing boat got too close to a then secret hydrogen bomb test (by the U.S.) on an atoll in the pacific. Everyone on board got radiation poisoning (one crew member died). This created a mass panic in Japan and people were afraid to eat fish. In the commentary on the dvd, one of the experts points out a quote on the train that directly alludes to this:
"It's terrible, huh? Contaminated tuna and radioactive fallout, and now this Godzilla to top it all off."

~SPOILERS AHEAD IN REST OF POST, READ AT OWN RISK~

There's another scene that one of the commentators on the dvd points out that's related to this, and that's the very first scene where a freighter is attacked and sunk. The crew all eventually die, as do the crews of two other boats that try to rescue them.
Another way Honda shows the horrors of war is by showing the human aspect. One of the survivors of the rescue boat from Odo island washes on shore only to die in his brothers arms. There are frequently shots of people oblivious to their fates right before the audience sees their inevitable doom. These are usually just small shots, such as people on a train acting normally just before Godzilla stomps on it, smashing a car and derailing the train. But there are a few other shots that are longer. One such shot is of a young man named Shinkichi who is asleep in a house he shares with his brother and a woman I assume is his brother's wife. There's a storm and an earthquake accompanied by Godzilla's trademark stomping sounds. Shinkichi runs out to see what's going on, sees the monster, and screams to his brother to get out of the house (I guess he doesn't like his sister in law?), but by the time his brother reaches the door it's too late. He runs to take cover with his wife and we see the house collapse on top of them. There are also victims who are very keen of their fate, such as a mother cradling her children in the burning streets of Tokyo during one of Godzilla's rampages telling them everything will be ok and they'll be with their father soon.
The after effects are also illustrated in a way that would lead one to believe they're based at least in part on the events in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We run into the mother and her children from the streets in a hospital overrun with victims. The mother is now dead and her body is being taken away as one of her children screams and cries for her. There are also scenes of fallout shelters. One of the passengers on the train even remarks before Godzilla strikes Tokyo that he doesn't want to go into the shelters again (obviously referring to events in WWII).
These are only the examples directly related to the monster. These are by no means the only allusions (another being The Oxygen Destroyer), but I can't possibly fit them all into a post, so I'm sticking to mostly the physical monster. I'd also like to say that very few, if any, of the thoughts in this article are my own origional thoughts and speculations. I've pieced together what little I know from the DVD (which has wonderful special features in addition to the commentaries) and various articles on the internet. I didn't cite because this is long and nerdy enough. However, if you'd like to read up on anything, here are some helpful links:
CNN article on The Lucky Dragon Incident:
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/08/spotlight/
The official site of the DVD in question:
http://www.godzillaondvd.com/
and a very nice reveiw on that DVD: