A sad reunion of a veteran and his savior.
- Shindo, a Japanese WWII veteran turned mega business mogul, comes face to face with Godzilla, who had saved his troops from an American Attack during WWII before he was even Godzilla. After going out of his way to charge Godzilla with nuclear missiles (despite Godzilla going off-radar, unaware he still exists), he still sees him as his savior in World War II, giving a tearful salute. As the sad music starts to swell, you can see the recognition in Godzilla's eyes amid the flashbacks to said time in the past. It looked as if Godzilla was cherishing said memories. And then, after the businessman nods, as if saying "yes, it's me", Godzilla roars (mournfully?) and promptly blasts the man into oblivion with his breath weapon. Shindo then accepts his fate, allowing his "suicide by Godzilla". Alternatively, this scene can be interpreted in at least two ways:
- Godzilla being tormented by those memories rather than cherishing them. Note how the flashback isn't about how Godzilla fought off the American soldiers, but rather about how the Japanese soldiers left him to die. He remembered the veteran alright, but not as an old friend, as the human who abandoned him. Maybe that was the moment that cemented Godzilla's apparent hatred of humans.
- Godzilla is, well, still pretty damn pissed off. He destroys stuff and though he does not smash every building he sees, the toll of destruction still being enormous, with evacuation being difficult indeed, it would stand to reason people were still inside, creating a great possibility of those who die or get injured by radiation poisoning, burning, being crushed by rubble, or suffocating under the debris. He's also angry at humanity for making him into a mutated monster via a nuclear sub. But he sees the general and becomes sentimental because somewhere, under all that anger, there's the heart of a sad and suffering animal. He knows the man meant him no harm as he remembers how they respected him after his sort-of Heroic Sacrifice. He then becomes confused, as he is not on good terms with humanity but likes this guy. Until Shindo gave a Godzilla a small nod, as if to say "it's okay, go ahead." So, in the end, he decides to give the general a quick and relatively painless death rather than the potential suffering he gave to millions of others.
- Word of God explains it this way: Shindo was responsible for Godzilla's creation (or so he thought, not knowing that Godzilla already existed and his submarine had nothing to do with it). Shindo felt HE had turned his savior into this destructive monster— the bane of his homeland, and so he asks Godzilla to kill him (the nod at the end of the scene) because he could not bear to live with this. Godzilla, through feeling strong sad emotions, complies.
