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Godzilla Minus One
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Godzilla Minus One (Japanese: ゴジラ-1.0; Gojira Mainasu Wan) is the 2023 installment of Toho's long-running Godzilla franchise. The film opens near the end of the Pacific War, as Navy pilot Kōichi Shikishima, sent on a kamikaze mission, feigns a mechanical issue and instead lands his Zero at a small maintenance airfield on Odo Island. While there, a large dinosaur-like monster emerges and kills all present except for Kōichi and the lead mechanic, Sōsaku Tachibana. After the war, Kōichi finds employment aboard the Shinsei Maru, a small boat helping to clear the thousands of leftover American and Japanese sea mines. After Godzilla is inadvertently exposed to the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll, massively increasing its size and giving it "atomic breath", the monster makes its way towards Japan, damaging and sinking several USN ships along the way.
In 1947, while investigating a wrecked American merchantman, the Shinsei Maru is attacked by Godzilla; the crew manages to detonate a mine in its mouth, but Godzilla regenerates. They are subsequently saved by the arrival of the heavy cruiser Takao. Soon after, Godzilla makes landfall in the Ginza district of Tokyo, using its atomic breath in an attack that kills over 30,000 people. With effectively no military force of their own, and with the Americans unwilling to assist militarily due to tensions with the Soviets, any hope of defeating the monster is left to a volunteer group of former Navy personnel. The group is given use of four disarmed destroyers, as well as a Shinden interceptor, to be piloted by Shikishima. A plan is devised by Shinsei Maru crew member and former naval weapons researcher Kenji Noda, involving rapidly sinking Godzilla using freon gas, and should that fail, rapidly ascending it to the surface with balloons to induce explosive decompression... which will hopefully be enough to kill it.
The following weapons were used in the film Godzilla Minus One:
Type 93 heavy machine gun
The Shinsei Maru is equipped with a single Type 93 heavy machine gun, used to detonate mines once they're brought to the surface. Their fellow minesweeping ship is similarly armed with a single Type 93. The weapon is correctly referred to as being 13mm in dialogue.
Type 99 Arisaka
The maintenance personnel on Odo Island attempt to defend themselves against Godzilla with Arisaka rifles, which prove completely ineffective.
Type 97 aircraft machine gun
The A6M Reisen fighter flown by Shikishima is armed with a pair of Type 97 aircraft machine guns above the engine.
Type 99 cannon
The Zero is also armed with a pair of Type 99 cannons in the wings. Tachibana urges Shikishima to get in his parked fighter and blast the monster with the cannons as it walks in front, however Shikishima, paralyzed with fear, is unable to open fire. The cannons are referred to by calibre in dialogue, with Tachibana noting that the 20mm cannons should be far more effective than their rifles.
Type 5 cannon
The J7W1 Shinden interceptor is armed with four Type 5 cannons in the nose; the upper two cannons are removed from the aircraft in preparation for the battle. The weapons are again referred to by calibre (30mm) in dialogue, as well as correctly noting their capacity of 60 rounds per gun. The J7W was an experimental defence fighter which first flew only days before the atomic bombs were dropped. Only two were built in reality (with one preserved today) though in this universe it's implied that a small handful were produced before war's end, retained for defence of the home islands. A full-scale replica Shinden was built for the film, its high detail extending to the cockpit as well as internal components such as the engine and cannons. This replica now lives at the Tachiarai Peace Memorial Museum.
Type 97 tank machine gun
Several Chi-To tanks are seen attempting to drive Godzilla out of Ginza. In addition to their Type 5 75mm main cannon, each tank is also equipped with a Type 97 tank machine gun in the hull. Like the Shinden, the Chi-To was developed very late in the war and intended for the defence of the home islands, but extremely few were produced.
Type 96 cannon
The heavy cruiser Takao features several twin Type 96 cannons for close range anti-air defence. Takao is noted as returning from Singapore, given back to Japan as a means of defending against Godzilla, rather than being scuttled (as historically happened). The ships which appear in the film, notably Takao and the four destroyers previously mentioned (Yukikaze, Hibiki, Yuukaze, Keyaki) were all among the very few IJN ships to survive the war, thus their appearances are very much appropriate. The destroyers were previously armed with Type 96s as well, but by this time the ships have been disarmed, with these removed and their main guns' barrels cut off.
12.7cm/40 Type 89
In terms of larger armament, Takao is armed with four twin 12.7cm/40 Type 89 cannons for heavy anti-air work, as well as ten 20cm/50 3rd Year Type No.2 cannons (actually 20.3cm) in five twin turrets as her primary armament.
20mm/70 Mark 4
The damaged and adrift American merchantman is armed with several Oerlikon 20mm cannons, designated 20mm/70 Mark 4 in US service; she also features a pair of deck guns, one each at the bow and stern.
M1 Garand
Period footage of General Douglas MacArthur features US servicemen holding M1 Garand rifles in the background.
