After World War II, both the Soviet Union and the United States used captured German V-series rockets and scientists as the basis for their own rocketry research. Their ultimate goal was to build long-range missiles that would reach the opponent's cities on the other side of the globe. This program went through fits and starts, but received the lion's share of rocketry funding. A smaller portion went into researching space flight. Working in utmost secrecy, the Soviets got into space first with Sputnik I on October 4, 1957. The United States began a crash program designed to catch up to them, and they finally made it into orbit on February 1, 1958. The same series of events--using captured Germans and V-rockets to perform missile research and limited space flight research--took place in the Real Universe [RU], the Showa Toho Universe [ShTU], and the Showa Daiei Universe [ShDU]. That is, until everything changed in the late 1950s and 1960s in the ShTU and the ShDU because of alien contact. As a result, both timelines wound up with advanced technology that appeared 'futuristic' to those of us living in the RU; in some cases, the U.S. and Japan of the Showa Toho and Showa Daiei timelines are 30 years or more ahead of our RU tech, often possessing technology not developed by any nation, including the U.S. and Japan, in our own reality as of the first decade in the 21st century!
In fact, the RU Japan has never made any notable strides in space technology at all, in very marked contrast to the Japan of the ShTU and the ShDU.

The Showa Toho Earth experienced its first major departure from the RU with the awakening of the kaiju to be named Godzilla. It seemed like very little could destroy him, as he effortlessly crushed the Japanese Self Defense Forces that tried to drive him back into the sea. Tokyo was destroyed as Godzilla marched relentlessly onward, finally returning to Tokyo Bay of his own accord.
Meanwhile, the famed scientist Dr. Daisuke Serizawa, was convinced by his fiancée Emiko that it was time to use his secret development: the Oxygen Destroyer. Serizawa gave his life in an attempt to use this device, which removes oxygen from a certain quantity of water, thereby killing any living thing within that area. He thought he succeeded as he was dying, but later events proved him wrong. Either Godzilla wasn't damaged, he regenerated, or there was more than one Godzilla. (1)

During the first part of 1957, The Mysterians invaded Earth in the Showa Tohoverse. Virtually every nation on Earth banded together as the Earth Defense Force to fight them under the auspices of the United Nations, with all the respective nations hastily pooling their scientific and technological resources to create weaponry unseen in the RU to this day, particularly maser technology, for the specific purpose of fending off the advanced alien invaders (and later, for battling dai kaiju). The Soviet and US space programs had not launched into space by this time, so the Sputnik and Explorer programs were put on hold--first to fight the Mysterians, then, secondly, to examine the leftover Mysterian technology. Unlike the rumors of dozens of crashed flying saucers and recovered alien technology in our RU, the ShTU had them for real, and the Mysterian invasion of the Earth was much too blatant to be kept secret from the general public. As a result of reverse-engineering the Mysterian technology, the world's scientific progress leaped forward tremendously--slowly at first, then more rapidly. (2)

Chris N, in his excellent Showa Toho timeline, mentions under the 1965 entry that in the Showa Tohoverse, a manned moon landing was achieved in 1957, 12 years before it was done in our RU. I don't think that it was possible to do that at this point, for several reasons:

a) current US and Soviet launch systems could not lift a manned capsule towards Earth orbit, let alone lunar orbit;

b) neither nation had a working manned space capsule, only designs; and

c) it takes time to reverse engineer advanced technology-American studies of the German rockets took time to study them, even with the willing cooperation of the German scientists.

Instead, what I think happened was this: the various early US Air Force and NACA (forerunner to NASA) spaceplane projects, taking us from the X-15 to the X-20 Dyna-Soar, were combined into one project during the summer of 1957 (as they were in our RU). It was farther along and easier to produce, instead of the Mercury program and the solo Soviet capsule project, Vostok. Not only would the Dyna-Soar allow for space travel, it would also allow itself in future versions to have research capacity, satellite docking, enemy satellite attack, and even provide for bombardment from orbit. (3) (They were also outgrowths of the Alpha-class and the Beta-2 aerial battleships, which were helpful in defeating the Mysterians.) Earth Defense Forces also developed the big maser cannons, for use against alien invaders and dai kaiju only, and not against nation-states, as firmly established in the U.N. charter written up following the Mysterian invasion. (4)

By the time humankind was ready to go to the moon, where the Mysterians had a base, about 2 years passed by. This was long enough for them to develop and build an experimental space station called the JSS-3. The Earth SPIP craft was used now to attain Earth orbit, to build the JSS-3, and to go to the moon. They took the battle to the Mysterian lunar base in 1959, and defeated them, destroying the Mysterian threat once and for all. Both the SPIP and the JSS-3 were created with international cooperation, and many of their personnel were Americans and Japanese working together. (5)

During Mothra's first appearance, in 1961, a weapon called an Atomic Heat Cannon was used on her, ineffectually, while she was in her pupal stage. This was a precursor to the later maser tanks, which were first used against the kaiju Gaila five years later. (6)

Captain Shinguji came out of his self-imposed exile in 1963 to lead the fight against the Muan Empire, with his super-advanced submarine Atragon and its freeze-inducing Zero Cannon, which is used to place the Muan dai kaiju 'deity' Manda into a temporary state of suspended animation. The 20th century Muan Empire was later destroyed by Shinguji's efforts. (7)

Along with the construction of large, manned space stations of the toroidal design, many small satellites were placed into orbit as well. They were launched for many reasons: communications, weather research, and tracking dai kaiju among them. More importantly, a series of 'early warning satellites' were sent up to keep an eye out for possible future alien attacks. Some satellites were also sent to lunar orbit, to monitor the surface of the moon and make sure that no alien bases would be built without our notice. In February 1964, one of these satellite launches inadvertently collided with an unknown space cell organism. The cell begins mutating, growing into an enormous dai kaiju named Dagora [called "Dogora" in the Japanese press reports of the incident -CN]. Feeding on coal, it quickly became a threat to all humankind. Eventually, bee venom is discovered to neutralize the now-divided-into-many-pieces creature, and the Dagora threat seems to be removed--for the present. (8)

By 1965, the United Nations Space Command (UNSC, also known as the World Space Authority, WSA) was operating the advanced spaceship designated the P-1. Flown by US astronaut John Glenn and Japanese astronaut K. Fuji, the P-1 was sent to the Asteroid Belt to explore a mysterious large asteroid, seemingly moving under its own propulsion, as it had recently appeared from seemingly out of nowhere. A few months-long trip led them to discover intelligent humanoids inhabiting and controlling the so-called 'Planet X.' It seems the mysterious inhabitants wanted to borrow Godzilla and Rodan to fight King Ghidorah (whom the mathematically fixated Xians referred to as 'Monster Zero'), who was mercilessly ravaging their world; in exchange, we would be given a tape detailing cures for every known medical malady that humanity was subject to. The P-1 returned, its return trip much faster due to Xian augmentation of its propulsion units, but while the UN was discussing the trade, the Xians arrived without permission and grabbed the mighty kaiju duo anyway. A return trip by Glenn and Fuji, along with Dr. Sakurai, saw them get the tape humanity was promised, which turned out to be simply a recorded demand to surrender and become a colony of the imperialistic Xian empire. Attacks by all three monsters (all under the mind control of the aliens) and Xian saucers on major Earth cities began in earnest. It was eventually discovered that certain sound frequencies would disrupt the control over the monsters, and drive the Xians crazy, leading to victory by the Earth forces. The device, called the A-Cycle Light Ray (strangely named for a sound weapon), was developed from an attempt to create an anti-mugger alarm. (9)

The first maser tanks were unveiled in 1966, when they were used to some effect on Gaila. (10) More durable kaiju, such as Godzilla, proved to be little affected by them, but Megalon was also injured by them. (11) In all likelihood, smaller/weaker dai kaiju (such as the daikondura, Kamikiras, and Minya), would be heavily damaged if not outright killed by the maser tanks. (12)

In 1967, a Dr. Kusami, who was a meteorologist, led a team of scientists to Solgell Island, a South Pacific atoll. Their goal was to set up a small science base to test a revolutionary weather control experiment designed to make inhospitable environments amenable for people to live there. Unfortunately, the island was home to some kaiju, and the experiments were disrupted, albeit with some success. It is theorized that Solgell is now Monster Island, and that the science base is now the control center. (13)

Later that year, the renegade scientist Dr. Huu kidnapped the gentle but potentially dangerous simian kaiju, King Kong, and also inflicted his giant robot double, Mechani-Kong, on an unsuspecting world. His partner, the evil foreign agent Ms. Piranha, became upset with him and destroyed the control system for Mechani-Kong. Dr. Huu shot her, but the damage to the scientist's former client and ally was done too late, and the out-of-control Mechani-Kong fell from the top of a building and shattered, ending its threat. (14)
Kong soon apparently killed Dr. Huu himself.

Another major technological breakthrough was the psionic amplifier, first seen in 1969. (15) The inventor appears to have been a stay-at-home telecommuter. The computer and telecommunications technology seems to be about 30 years beyond ours at the same time period, enabling (some) people to work at home. (16) It would be very possible that a public version of the Internet/WWW could have been around some 30 years earlier in the ShTU. The earlier political/economic integration very probably spurred the growth of ShowaWeb so that scientists worldwide would be able to share their research much more efficiently. (Similar to the events in the RU, but it took off much faster as a result of the kaiju attacks and alien invasions. Furthermore, it would have allowed for quicker reports of said attacks and invasions, enabling faster response times for the authorities.) (17) By this time, the UNSC has established a Moonbase. (18) During this time frame, extensive high-speed rail networks are built across North America, Japan, Europe, and Australia, both on a local commuter scale (light rail trains for mass transit) and on a continental scale (like the Bullet trains of Japan or the French TGV), dramatically reducing automobile pollution (but see below). (19)

The surface world learned of the advanced undersea city of Latitude Zero in the second half of 1969, an advanced hidden metroplex composed of peaceful scientists who had withdrawn from the belligerent surface world in the mid-late 1950's. One member of the community, mad scientist Dr. Malik, an expatriate American, attempted to either take over or destroy Latitude Zero, but was foiled in his attempt by the combined efforts of the citizens of Latitude Zero and the UN. (20)

In 1970, the space probe Helios 7 is launched from an American facility to explore the atmosphere of the gas giant Jupiter. En route, a strange energy being enters the probe and takes it over, returning the unmanned vessel to Earth. This hive-like entity, known as the Yog, takes over certain creatures--a giant squid, then later a giant lobster and a giant turtle (known as the Gezora, Ganime, and Kameboas, respectively), along with a human. All are later destroyed. (21)

Perhaps the faster, earlier growth of home computers and the Net (especially in Japan and the US, the seemingly dominant nations of the ShTU) led to a very fast changeover in manufacturing processes, from a mechanical/steam-based technology to computerized-robotized technology that produced different kinds of pollutants. However, the power-generating technology failed to advance as rapidly, and in this time frame solar power is no more advanced as ours is now in the RU. Now, there seems to be a lot of oil refineries in the ShTU that get destroyed. This would have led to an extreme reliance on coal products (since the petroleum would be needed for plastics production), and coal byproducts would have been more in evidence as atmospheric and marine pollutants. Leftover Dagora cells (see above), either in the atmosphere or on land, would feed on these coal byproducts, and wind up being washed into bays. By 1971, some of these cells had mutated into a freakish colony of tiny mutant aquatic organisms (which look like coal-black tadpoles), and they developed the ability to merge with each other and grow incredibly large, thus creating the pollution eating and generating kaiju, Hedorah. (22)

In 1972, a special branch of Interpol and the UN is created, sometimes referred to as the Alien Counter-Insurgency Defense agency (ACID). Its mission is to find and destroy any alien conspiracies anywhere in the world in the wake of the Mysterian, Muan, Nebulan, Seatopian, and Xian incursions. They detect and destroy the attempted covert Simeon invasions of 1974 and 1975, with help from Godzilla, Anguirus, and King Seesar. (23)

The brilliant roboticist Professor Goro Ibuki created the Jet Jaguar robot in 1973. Attempts by the Seatopians, a hidden offshoot civilization of Mu, to capture him ensued, as he could help them control the dai kaiju Megalon with a certain type of frequency wave emitted by his robot. While temporarily under control of the Seatopians, Jet Jaguar did waken Megalon. Somehow, Jet Jaguar's AI system overcame the Seatopian control, and he flew to Monster Island to get Godzilla to help him. Meanwhile, the Seatopians contacted the Nebulans and managed to borrow Gigan from the sentient cockroach-like race. Returning to face the monsters, Jet Jaguar surpassed his programming in an unknown way, somehow allowing him to tap into an extra-dimensional energy source that enabled him to grow to kaiju-size; he battled defensively until Godzilla arrived and they drove the two monsters away. Jet Jaguar had managed to break Gigan's arm, so he fled first, and then he and the Big G team up against Megalon, driving him back to his underground domain. The heroic robotic sentai then shrank down to human size again. As he was never seen fighting kaiju following the above incident, it is possible that he was damaged during the battle and could never reprogram himself to accrue mass so as to attain kaiju size again. Alternatively, Professor Ibuki might have damaged that mechanism as he put in new safeguards to ensure Jet Jaguar would never be used to control kaiju again. (24)

Beginning in 1976, the UN constructs two more advanced space exploration craft: the JX-1 Hawk and JX-2 Eagle. Orbital stations at this time include the SSS-1 and the Terra. The Hawk is ready to launch first, and assigned to explore Saturn and its moons and rings (possibly in an attempt to discover other hostile alien races who had sequestered themselves on various celestial bodies within the Sol system). The Hawk is destroyed in an encounter with a gravitationally powerful object called Gorath in early 1977. The Eagle is finished and is sent to study the strange object. Using information relayed by the Eagle's crew, Earth scientists are able to either move the Earth out of the way with a powerful thruster system, or else 'warp' it out of regular space to avoid being hit by Gorath. The experiment works, and Earth returns to its regular orbit in the normal space-time continuum. (25)

A time of peace settled in. By 1990, all of the dai kaiju of the ShTU (except for possibly a handful of giant squid, lobsters, aquatic turtles, and octopi, who managed to stay hidden in the oceanic depths) had been rounded up on Monster Island. Special force fields kept the flying dai kaiju close to the island, the swimming and flying kaiju near, and even a special 'solid' sonic energy corral to keep the deep sea kaiju like Ebirah at home. (26)

The peace is shattered when the hostile Natals attack the peaceful Venerians in 1990, and Earth gets involved on the side of the Venerians. The UNSC commissions a number of space fighters, which are a little larger than early 21st century RU jet fighters, and a lot faster and far more powerful. Earth and Venerian forces successfully repel the fearsome Natals. (27)

After the Natal-Venerian War, peace returned for a few years. A third major vessel was constructed by the USNC, the Moonlight SY-3. It patrols back and forth between Earth and the Moonbase quite frequently, and is used to rotate Moonbase crews, as well as having a landing bay on Monster Island. During the Kilaak invasion of 1999, her crew performed brilliantly, retaking the Monster Island headquarters and from the silicon-based aliens, destroying their saucers, and destroying the Kilaak lunar base as well. (28)

Over the next several decades, humankind continues to develop its technology, especially as regards to space travel. Colonies were set up on many planets, large asteroids, and moons in the Solar System, although careful watch was kept to avoid getting too close to the remaining hostile peoples (all descendants of either human Muan space colonists, such as the Mysterians, Venerians, and the Xians, or beings genetically created by them, such as the Kilaaks, Nebulans, and Simeons) around the sun. Science bases and power plants were all over the Martian surface, where humans live in protective geodesic domes. Archaeologists were studying the old Muan colonies that were long ago destroyed by King Ghidorah. The outer Solar System was still underdeveloped, as it still took over a month to get as far as Neptune. By 2045, the Xians had pretty much wiped out or enslaved everyone except for the Natals. Then, the Xians attacked again; by this time, the United Nations had been replaced by the truly unified Earth Union government. The Xians used many dai kaiju and saucers to attack the Earth Union settlements and bases, the main colonies on Mars, Venus and the Moon, and Earth itself. But after a period of intense fighting, with her Venerian allies and the super kaiju Godzilla and Mothra, the Earth Union beat the Xians and Natals, and drove them back into their home corners of the Solar System. (29)

(1) Godzilla, King of the Monsters, 1954.

(2) The Mysterians, 1957.

(3) Astronautix, an invaluable resource for space flight and rocketry researchers and enthusiasts.

(4) Personal communication with Chris N, 5-27-05.

(5) Battle in Outer Space, 1959. Although the aliens in this film are called Natal (according to Toho Kingdom), it is fairly obvious this film has to be a sequel to the Mysterians, showing the humans taking the battle to them [and it may simply be a re-telling of the events we saw in The Mysterians, with a few events added and a few left out -CN].

(6) Mothra, 1961.

(7) Atragon, 1963.

(8) Dagora, the Space Monster, 1964.

(9) Godzilla vs. Monster Zero, 1965.

(10) War of the Gargantuas, 1966.

(11) Godzilla vs. Megalon, 1973.

(12) Personal communication with Chris N, 5-28-05.

(13) Son of Godzilla, 1967.

(14) King Kong Escapes, 1967. (The fate of Dr. Huu is uncertain; it appeared that he was crushed under a large amount of heavy machinery when Kong attacked and capsized his ship, but his remains were never found, and he has apparently not resurfaced.)

(15) Godzilla's Revenge, 1969. Unfortunately, this technology is never seen to be developed in the ShTU. However, it is definitely well-developed in the Heisei Tohoverse.

(16) Personal communication with Chris N, 6-1-05.

(17) Personal communication with Chris N, 6-2-05.

(18) Toho Kingdom web site's entry for Godzilla's Revenge.

(19) From the clip of Manda attacking New York, Destroy All Monsters, 1968. Clearly, New York is a very clean city. Whether the elevated track in front of Manda is a commuter rail or a long-distance transport is uncertain, but there is no evidence of large numbers of automobiles, as you would expect compared to the New York of the RU. It is likely that the power plants and factories of heavy industry are being relocated some distance away from the cities to keep them cleaner, while allowing for the increased use of long-distance power transmission.

(20) Latitude Zero, 1969.

(21) Yog, Monster From Space, 1970.

(22) Personal communication with Chris N, 6-3-05. (How ironic that the kaiju spurred advanced technology on the Earths in which they existed, which in turn created Hedorah, the Smog Monster, on the Earth in the ShTU.)

(23) Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, 1974; Terror of Mechagodzilla, 1975.

(24) Godzilla vs. Megalon, 1973.

(25) Gorath, 1963.

(26) Speculation from Chris N's Showa Toho timeline, based on info from Ed Godzisweski's book THE GODZILLA ENCYCLOPEDIA, with further evidence from Destroy All Monsters, 1968.

(27) The War In Space, 1978.

(28) Destroy All Monsters, 1968.

(29) Speculations by the author; by Chris N; and the Godzilla, Monster of Monsters! video game from Nintendo.

The theories of the aliens from the ShTU being intra-solar colonists of the ancient Muan (and possibly Atlantean) civilizations are all courtesy of author Den Valdron.

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