I love monster movies and I love conversion stories. I had no idea about this one. The way someone’s faith integrates with their art is also always fascinating.

The Coming Home Network reports:
One of my fondest memories growing up in the 1980s was the weekly Saturday afternoon creature double feature that used to play on our local UHF station in Detroit. Before the era of streaming and 4k Blu-rays, almost every major city in America had a channel that regularly showed movies like this. My favorite films during this time were the Godzilla films. The tone of these films began in a somber way, but as the series progressed, they catered more to children. Even with the shift in tone, the movies often contained humanistic themes and social commentary on Japanese culture in the 60’s and 70’s.

While there were many “fathers” of the Godzilla franchise, it was really one man’s imagination and creativity which gave Godzilla the look and personality that has made him the “mon-star” I grew to love — Eiji Tsuburaya, special effects master and convert to Catholicism.

Tsuburaya was born in 1901 to a Buddhist family in Japan. At a young age he showed great skill in art, seen as a remarkably skilled craftsman for his age. He was also fascinated with planes and considered becoming a pilot. At the age of 18 he found himself working at various movie studios learning the craft of both camera work and special-effects. During the years that followed, and especially during the Pacific War, he continued to hone his craft in special-effects, most notably in war time films that depicted air and sea battles. All of these experiences would serve him well when after the war he was hired by Toho Studios to create the special-effects for his most famous work: Gojira (1954). It was also during these early years, before Gojira, that he met his future wife, Masano Araki, whom he married in 1930.

Though Tsuburaya was often influenced by aircraft, special-effects, and set designs, it also seems that Masano had a profound impact on her husband’s faith, bringing him to Christ and His Church. (Masano herself was a convert, introduced to the faith by her sister.) Godzilla historian August Ragone notes that it was during these early years that their third son, Akira, was born, the first to be baptized as a Catholic. Masano began raising her sons as Catholics, and eventually led Eiji to convert as well. From all accounts, Tsuburaya was a faithful Catholic the rest of his life.

You can read more at CHN.