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The Oxygen Destroyer -- does anyone weigh the moral anymore?
You might recall the 1954 original movie "Godzilla", which in itself was a dark and haunting tale. Nuclear testing has caused a giant prehistoric reptile to mutate into a force which brings death and untold suffering to man. One scientist stumbles onto a horrible discovery and creates a weapon of destruction by sheer accident. The Oxygen Destroyer is a weapon that causes excruciating suffering before turning its victim into a liquefied skeleton. In the wrong hands, such power would have caused untold human suffering and death on a scale not unlike that of the monster... or the atomic bomb. If you recall, the failure of conventional weapons to stop Godzilla necessitated the use of the O2 Destroyer to bring an end to its rampages. But have we even begun to reflect on Serizawa's death, a death which was admittedly self-inflicted, seemingly without adequate cause? At the movies end, the scientist goes underwater to place his weapon in the beast's den, though not without first burning his papers and his notes to ensure that none of the data was left behind. He cuts his lifeline as the weapon immolates the monster to ensure that none of the data still fresh in his memory was to be exploited by power hungry men. But what did his act mean?
Let us consider for a moment what could have happened had the Oxygen Destroyer actually been turned into a weapon of war. Its use in lakes and swimming areas would have swiftly ensured that the human toll would have risen as hundreds of innocent civilians were turned into liquefied skeletons. We find out later in "Godzilla Vs. Destroyer" that its use on land would have returned the same result. It would have been used for the indiscriminate killing of schoolchildren and citizens alike. Serizawa saw all of this as possible.
The reality was of course, that Godzilla was destroying mankind city block by city block. The same result was happening now, as a result of atomic testing. The same indiscriminate killing. Once Serizawa relented to use the O2 Destroyer he knew there was no turning back. But unfortunately, all that most moralists would see is that Serizawa wrongfully took his own life. Would they not have weighed the psychological anguish and the intense emotions of responsibility that resulted from his creation of such a dreadful weapon? And above all, tacked onto it was the anguishing realization that his bride to be loved someone else... something which further fueled his drive to take his own life. Even so, did his act not say "I sacrifice myself so that my fellow human beings may live... free from the menace of Godzilla, and free from the threat of the Oxygen Destroyer?"
It is a most uncomfortable assessment to make... but one worth making.