Important facts:

– Godzilla was born in 1954.

– Godzilla’s name is a combination of the Japanese words gojira, meaning gorilla, and kujira, meaning whale.

– Godzilla is shown to have great vitality: it is immune to conventional weaponry thanks to its rugged hide and ability to regenerate, and as a result of surviving a nuclear explosion, it cannot be destroyed by anything less powerful.

– Godzilla is a representation of the destruction that the bombing of Hiroshima unleashed upon Japan and the world, both physically and culturally.