Hi - we as mods have approved this thread, because while this is a homework question, it is asking for clarification or resources, rather than the answer itself, which is fine according to our rules. This policy is further explained in this Rules Roundtable thread and this META Thread.

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Additionally, while users may be able to help you out with specifics relating to your question, we also have plenty of information on /r/AskHistorians on how to find and understand good sources in general. For instance, please check out our six-part series, "Finding and Understanding Sources", which has a wealth of information that may be useful for finding and understanding information for your essay.

If you're interested in events in Japan after World War 2 then I definitely recommend that you check out the book Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II. If I remember correctly, it only covers events in the early part of the Cold War, but it might be a good place to look for ideas. It does include a lot of discussion about the Japenese Communist Party, although that isn't the focus of the book. You can see how frequently the Communist Party is mentioned by looking at its entry in the book's index on Amazon.

One guy in my class was choosing to write on Godzilla's appeal globally but I felt that was too simplistic

There have been serious scholarly works on the subject, a few examples

Bergesen, Albert. “GODZILLA, DURKHEIM, AND THE WORLD-SYSTEM.” Humboldt Journal of Social Relations, vol. 18, no. 1, 1992, pp. 195–216. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23262631.

Tsutsui, William "Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters" New York:2004

Social scientists do write serious material about the implications of popular culture-- it is something that can be done with some academic rigor.

Any good sites that you might recommend? The paper isn't due for 3.5 months but of course I'll be working on it starting this weekend to assemble sources.

Not sites. Generally -- as in the rules here-- don't use websites for historical research. Go to your school librarian and ask how to get access to databases of academic publications, JSTOR in particular. You'll very likely have access to it through your school. This is the place to go for your first pass at a reading list of sources.

A very quick search of JSTOR for sources relevant to the JCP during the Cold War produced dozens of academic articles, a few

Simon, Sheldon W. “Maoism and Inter-Party Relations: Peking's Alienation of the Japan Communist Party.” The China Quarterly, no. 35, 1968, pp. 40–57. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/652433.

Dixon, Karl. “The Growth of a ‘Popular’ Japanese Communist Party.” Pacific Affairs, vol. 45, no. 3, 1972, pp. 387–402. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2756509.

“The Rise and Fall of Communist Leadership (1947–1951): SCAP’s Reverse Course.” Japan's Militant Teachers: A History of the Left-Wing Teachers' Movement, by BENJAMIN C. DUKE, University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 1973, pp. 75–99. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv9zck04.8.

Er, Lam Peng. “The Japanese Communist Party: Organization and Resilience in the Midst of Adversity.” Pacific Affairs, vol. 69, no. 3, 1996, pp. 361–379. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2760924.

Falkenheim, Peggy L. “Eurocommunism in Asia: The Communist Party of Japan and the Soviet Union.” Pacific Affairs, vol. 52, no. 1, 1979, pp. 64–77. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2757766.

Langer, Paul, and Rodger Swearingen. “The Japanese Communist Party, the Soviet Union and Korea.” Pacific Affairs, vol. 23, no. 4, 1950, pp. 339–355. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2752742.

. . . and many, many more. These academic sources are a MUCH better platform for writing a paper. "Websites" -- may be good or bad, but there's no obvious way to tell. Some are well footnoted, just about none are peer reviewed. Definitely a less good platform for a student paper.

Similarly, a search of journal articles on Japan's relations with sub-Saharan Africa comes up with

Cornelissen, Scarlett. “Selling Africa: Japan's G8 Politics and Its Africa Diplomacy.” Global Governance, vol. 18, no. 4, 2012, pp. 461–470., www.jstor.org/stable/24526383.

Japan-Africa Relations. By Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010 [Book]

Adem, Seifudein. “Africa in Japanese Diplomatic Thought: An African Perspective.” Journal of Black Studies, vol. 40, no. 5, 2010, pp. 871–896. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40648611.

Eyinla, Bolade M. “Promoting Japan’s National Interest in Africa: A Review of TICAD.” Africa Development / Afrique Et Développement, vol. 43, no. 3, 2018, pp. 107–122. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26645582.

Burgschweiger, Nadine. “'Towards a Vibrant Africa': The Beginning of a New Era of Japanese-African Partnership?” Africa Spectrum, vol. 43, no. 3, 2008, pp. 415–428. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40175258.

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To be clear-- I did essentially no work beyond entering search terms to assemble these lists . . . it has never been easier to find and use academic literature. So I encourage students-- if you don't already know how to use journal search engines like Google Scholar, and portals like JSTOR, your job #1 is to go to your library and ask someone to show you how to do it.

For anyone who's used Google, none of it is hard-- and it opens up a world of much better material for nearly anything you might be writing about.