LCranston wrote: "Knowing that this is a long-standing source of contention for fans of the film, why is Honda's statement that the end is "a tie" not established as the definitive answer? Is this a unanimous opinion by the writer and other filmmakers involved as well?"

It may be a long standing contention outside of Japan (and America isn't the center of the universe). A similar statement was also made by Shinichi Sekizawa, who wrote the screenplay (mentioned a few posts back). I'm not sure why Guy Tucker did not include this in his book, Age Of The Gods (Daikaiju Publishing, 1996), but he's gone now and can't answer that question. Japanese genre historians are usually more interested in the hows and whys in the making of these films, and the people who made them, and less on these "fannish" elements; with the exception of some fanzines and the aforementioned "Godzilla Magazine" page listed above (posted by Mike Keller).