what's with the ants?


just before the bomb is dropped there is a scene where a giant colony of ants is streaming into the house. The father remarks, "how strange." what's the significance of this? is it symbolic or did this phenomenon actually occur, and why? it's curious because a writer almost never incorporates something into a story without purpose.

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I also wondered this and ran a search on google but didn't find anything. It's strange.

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They say that animals can sense when rain, or a storm, is coming.

Maybe the ant scene was significant in a symbolic sense because a storm of fire was coming. It may also have served as a warning to the viewer that the nasty stuff was to begin soon.

Whether it's symbolic or actually happened, you'd probably have to ask Keiji Nakazawa himself.

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Knowing the Japanese, I would say it was Symbolic.

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=wGb4zNqYj10C&pg=PA67&lpg=PA67&dq=japanese+sayings+ants&source=bl&ots=RAbNEC9hLh&sig=wJi66zSE36GgtoQbb5siFWj86mI&hl=en&ei=PUI1TOTFGofw0wSjjaHVAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false

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I could see ants sensing a natural disaster but not a man made one. That confused me too.

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I could see ants sensing a natural disaster but not a man made one. That confused me too.


It still puzzles me, because I've also read an apocryphal story that just before the A-bomb, the animals at the Hiroshima zoo were going berserk.

"I don't deduce, I observe."

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Interesting, I guess if it were true we would have heard more about it, but I would really like to know if there were actual observations of such animal reactions before this human made disaster.

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I really doubt that the zoo animals acted anything but normal. Think about what was going on in the natural world. There is nothing that indicates what is about to happen besides a plane flying over ... which happens every day. The ants were symbolic.

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The people were never informed of the impending attack. Note in the movie, Gen asks, "Why no air raid siren?" The ants were taking shelter. If the people had been able to take some shelter, much less carnage. So I think, whether or not in real life ants were observed taking shelter, the writer is saying, "Even the ants get a warning, but not people. We are lower than ants."

As to why ants would know in advance, it probably comes under the same umbrella as animals sensing an earthquake or hurricane, well before it's come. Probably artistic license.

It is of course very endearing that ants marching into the house is not met with repellant, swatter, or broom, but an innocent observation, a gentle reminder that life is amazing at any size.

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