What audience was targeted for Showa Gamera films?

I'm planning on watching the entire Showa era of Gamera films even though I don't particularly remember them being good. I have watched snippets lately and I've noticed two things. Firstly the production values are actually pretty big dispite some awfully cheap lookings suits. In Gamera vs. Gyaos I spotted so many different life sized props, from Gyaos's foot, arm and Gamera's shell. There was also a fair amount of minature work and they even used a life sized prop to show a plane cut in half. Second thing I noticed brings me to the subject header.

Gamera is known during his first series as the friend of children. These movies all focus on children caught up in the monster action. Gamera goes out of his way to protect them and the kids joyously root him on. However . . . .these movies are INCREDIBLY violent. Every film Gamera is bleeding all over the place, getting skewered, needles shot through his body. Monsters are torn apart, beheaded, roaring out in pain. Are kids really the target audience? Is it a cultural thing? I know in Japan some things may be less taboo. Maybe children over there are a bit more hardened than over here. There is a huge cultural shock over there. I watched a rather interesting video not too long ago about Japan's population shrinking because adult entertainment and simulated relationships are so readily available that people aren't reproducing, but I guess I'm getting off topic here.

Seriously, though . . .who were those Gamera films targeted towards?