The monster as/is the doctor: Ishirō Honda's Gojira (1954) and the post-imperial.

This article analyzes Ishirō Honda's 1954 film *Gojira* as a complex post-imperial commentary rather than merely a nuclear allegory, focusing particularly on the character Dr. Daisuke Serizawa, a disabled war veteran whose scientific discovery—the Oxygen Destroyer—parallels the destructive power of the atomic bomb. The monster Gojira (Godzilla) is interpreted as a multifaceted symbol representing the trauma of nuclear devastation, the old Japanese empire, American military influence, and the natural world disrupted by human violence. The film's narrative and visual style reflect tensions between global capitalism and local post-war Japanese identity, with Serizawa's self-sacrifice embodying a rejection of cyclical imperial violence and offering a potential, though tragic, path toward a more just future. The article also situates *Gojira* within broader cultural and political contexts, including contemporary literature and ecological concerns, highlighting its enduring appeal as a work of multiplicities that negotiates themes of disability, nationalism, and post-imperial melancholy.