You know Ultraman, right? For a lot of American people, I know, itís probably just another kitschy, trashy pop culture artifact--like the
PinkLady show. But I love Ultraman in different way. I hold in highest esteem its political and emotional profundities.

You might want to ask me "how can you take so seriously the kidsíTV show where a silver giant with an obvious zipper running down his back
wrestles monsters with peeping holes in their neck?".  I know, itís goofy and I enjoy it that way too. But I also think Ultraman and its sequels are as worthy of heated discussion as Spike Lee joints. Let me explain.

First of all, the premise is totally political. The heroes, Ultraman and his blood brothers, protect the earth from natural disaster (monsters) and invaders (aliens), even though they too are aliens. Why do they do this?
Because their home country, the Nebula M78, has appointed itself as a peace keeper of the universe and stations their fighters in each developing planet like the earth, just like the US militaries!

This premise reflects an anxiety underlying Japanese society in the late sixties, when Ultraman was aired for the first time. Japan was demilitarized by the Allied Forces after WWII, but in the cold war era, it was surrounded
by militant, and in some cases expansionist, countries--Russia, China, North Korea. Many Japanese feared that their country might turn into the next Vietnam. These powerless islanders relied on a superpowered guardian to protect them.

I'm here to tell you the story of an episode of Ultraseven, the second sequel of the Ultraman series. The title of the episode is "A Messenger of Nonmart."

Our hero is Dan, an officer in the TDF (Terrestrial Defense Force). His secret identity is Ultraseven, another giant superalien who protects the earth from invaders from space. One day, Dan visits a tropical seaside village to investigate an undersea plant that was attacked by an unidentified submarine. On the beach, he meets a boy, who claims that the unknown attacker belonged to the self-defense forces of Nonmart.

According to the boy, Nonmart are Earth's only true native tribe. "Thousands and thousands of years ago," he explains, "Nonmart were driven undersea by invaders from space. The invaders conquered the land mass of the earth, but eventually they forgot their own origins and technology. In fact, we humans, who believe ourselves to be natives of the Earth, are actually the descendants of the space invaders. Even now, humans are taking away the ocean floor--the last sanctuary left for Nonmart." Dan then wonders how the boy could know all this, but he forgets to ask him before he is gone. Dan, I
mean Ultraseven, gets perplexed, because if what the boy says is true, then Dan is helping the conquering invaders.

After that, the TDF tracks down the mysterious submarine responsible for the plant incident and discovers a huge city at the bottom of the sea. TDFís generals believe it to be a secret alien base and decide to launch a preemptive strike. Dan, however, proposes to investigate the base before launching any attack, but nobody listens to his advice.

Before the attack is launched, the spooky boy reappears and begs Dan to stop the impending war. "Nonmart are pacifists and weak. Thatís why they
lost to humans. Please, help them!"

Dan doesn't know which side to choose. If what the boy says is the true, then he should side with the peaceful Nonmart from the marauding human race whose lives he has sworn to protect. As he deliberates this, though, an octopus monster manipulated by Nonmart appears out of the sea and attacks a TDF ship. Reluctantly, Dan changes into Ultraseven and fights with the monster, because that is his job. While he fights, though, the TDF submarine fleet opens fire on Nonmart nation. The ancient undersea city is obliterated by a nuclear weapon, and Nonmart are rendered extinct.

After the battle, Dan is blamed by the boy on the beach.

"You think you're a hero, Ultraseven? Look at what you've done!"
The boy cries and then disappears, like a daydream. Dan is unsure whether the boy was truly a messenger of Nonmart or just an illusion. All he knows is that everything is gone. It is too late.

So, what do you think? Even just the plot itself provokes many questions. In fact, the more you know the facts behind this story, the more
you think. There are two important facts behind the story. The first is that today's ìJapaneseî are not native Japanese. The second is that the creator of the Ultraman series was a true native Japanese. His name was Tetsuo Kinjo, a masterful screenwriter of material that wasn't only limited to Ultraman and Ultraseven. We can say he was the Rod Serling of Japan. He was also Okinawan--a true native Japanese.

Let's thumb through Japanese history. Two thousand years ago, battalions from the Korean peninsula invaded Japan. They used advanced weapons such as iron swords and horses to defeat the native Japanese and established their empire, which continues to this day. Think of the islands at the other end of the Eurasian continent: Great Britain. Anglo-Saxon tribes invaded Britian and eventually established what we think of as British civilization. And just like the Celts, the native British who were scattered to Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, the native Japanese were driven to Hokkaido and the Okinawan Islands, the respective north and south ends of the Japanese Islands.

However, Okinawa remained an independent country until the 17th century.
Until then they had their own kingdom and language, which was totally different from Japanís. They flourished on marine trade between China and Japan and abolished their military because they were a civilized, peaceful, and intelligent people. Actually, Nonmart means "Non-Martial."
Unfortunately, they were too idealistic. The Japanese military raided Okinawa and conquered it without major resistance. The Japanese erased the Okinawan royal family, their tradition, and culture.

Since then Okinawans have been treated like second-class citizens in Japan, the way the Irish have been in England. The saddest moment for them
occurred during WWII, when the Japanese military used Okinawa as a battleground for their final showdown against U.S. troops. The Japanese army
forced Okinawan civilians to demonstrate their loyalty to the Japanese empire by sacrificing their lives: even kids and schoolgirls were forced to take a bamboo lancers and attack American flame-thrower tanks. The American forces resorted to bombing the people, and as a result,  the Okinawan Islands were totally devastated in that war, like Vietnam.

Fortunately, Kinjo, who was eight years old at the end of the war, survived the killing fields, but was mentally traumatized by the War of the
Gargantuas. In addition, the islands were occupied by U.S. forces until 1972, and this meant that when Kinjo was working on Ultraman in Tokyo, he was a technically a foreigner, an American citizen, just like Ultraman among
the human race.

Now you could understand where the idea of Ultraman came from. Itís a little like Rod Serling, who was Jewish and wrote cautionary fables about racism for his  Twilight Zone. He, too, implied political commentary under the surface of science fiction, because overt drama about discrimination was too tough for television in the mid sixties.

To conclude my story, I have to tell you what Kinjo did after Ultramanís days. In the seventies, the US discontinued their occupation of Okinawa. Though many Okinawans looked forward to their independence at this moment, it was impossible. The US returned Okinawa to Japan, which had by then become a rich nation. It was a kind of political betrayal.

In disgust, Kinjo quit his television job and returned to Okinawa. He burned his bridges with Japan and dedicated his life to his people. He
campaigned heavily to develop the International Marine Expo, an attraction meant to promote Okinawan culture and its promising future. The centerpiece of the Expo was an elaborate undersea city that employed the slogan, "The Ocean: The Next Frontier." The Okinawan people cheered on their hero Kinjo, a successful television creator from Tokyo, and expected the Expo to become a great success. However, the Expo ended up a total failure.

In reaction, the disappointed populace blamed Kinjo for the exploitation of precious natural resources for the construction of the undersea city. He began to drink heavily. In the year when he became 37 years old, he got drunk, dropped down a stairway and died. That's the day the real Ultraman died.
 

-Tomohiro Machiyama