He was born 114 years ago in Fukushima, Japan and worked as a director of special effects for film and TV.

His greatest creation was city-stomping fruit of the nuclear age, Godzilla.

No, not a myopic, rampaging beast in a white gown; that's bridezilla.

Godzilla first appeared in 1954 in a country rebuilding barely eight years after two atomic bombs were dropped, described as a "violent, prehistoric sea monster awakened and empowered by nuclear radiation".

Any resemblance to Eric Abetz is malicious and unfounded.

While wholly Japanese it had its origins two decades and an ocean away. It's reported he once said "When I worked for Nikkatsu Studios, King Kong came to Kyoto and I never forgot that movie. I thought to myself, 'I will someday make a monster movie like that'."

Running Toho Studios' visual effects department he worked with director Ishiro Honda and producer Tomoyuki Tanaka to create Godzilla.

The look of the killer lizard and  the destruction it wrought was created by a mix of actors in rubber suits and Tsubaraya's use of lighting, camera techniques and editing, all done with miniatures. Something like Bill Shorten.

He himself eschewed rubber suits in favour of a neat suit and a trilby.

His second most famous creation was Ultraman, who arrived 12 years after Godzilla and was a force for good rather than evil.

He died, having made more than 250 films, in 1970 aged 69.

As well as his films his legacy includes a sake made in his honour. Something Bernard Tomic and Dawn Fraser are yet to achieve but Ryan Harris may yet manage.

The Google doodle allows you to assist in the making of a monster movie in the style of Tsubaraya. No cities are harmed in the making of it.