In essence, to summarize, Haruo Sakaki is a man who obsesses over pride and revenge for the sake of doing what he sees as restoring human honor and stability. His is a story of human power trying to triumph over the world around it and his worldview becomes extremely focused upon this single Humanist goal. Ford Brody is a man who is also concerned about human stability, but does so at the sacrifice of Humanism and while he does keep a focused goal he doesn't push other matters off to the periphery.
Both men find their lives shattered by the attack of a monster, granted Haruo sees his parents killer whereas Ford does not. However, Ford continues on with a still-living father and suffers estrangement from him because Joseph Brody does the exact thing Haruo does and obsesses over the past. Later on, Ford sees his mother's killer in person while also losing his father to the same creature. Whereas Haruo's pursuit of slaying his personal White Whale drives him literally across the stars, into conflicts with man and beast, and into the machinations of others in this pursuit of revenge; revenge never plays a factor into either Brody.
Consider the scene Joseph Brody is dying. How extremely easy would it have been for him to tell his son to avenge him and his late wife, either by striking at the male MUTO or getting reputational revenge by "telling the world I was right". But instead, with a fully justified motive for revenge presented, Joe instead tells his son to be a better man then he imagined he'd been and just go home to his family. Joseph Brody was on a quest just like Haruo was, but at death's door he sees such an endeavor as folly and warns his son against it.
And while Joseph Brody gets to directly guide his son, Haruo's parents indirectly guide him to his revenge quest and to project everything he sees as wrong with humanity's situation as Godzilla's fault. So much so he is against colony or resource outpost plans and drives everything to kill the monster that killed his world.
This leads into the biggest contrast. Haruo is all attack, Ford is all defense. Haruo is concerned chiefly with lashing out against this world that would damage human pride, existence, and dignity. The universe is bearing down on him and others and he sees humanity's very survival as dependent on them fighting back. Ford's actions meanwhile from saving the lost boy in the monorail to volunteering for the nuclear disposal mission is motivated by him seeing the universe bearing down on humanity, and rather than fight it directly he tries to just survive it and help as many as he can survive it. Even when Ford blows up the MUTO nest, it's not out of malice towards the adult MUTO but him realizing how much of a danger their progeny would be and that Godzilla, the only hope at stopping them, needed help.
We even see this shown in their military roles. Haruo is a commanding officer who takes an active role in the fighting, the first to fire the shots to show he's not afraid to put himself in the front of danger and taking lead in every major conflict or risking to instigate conflict against perceived evil. Ford, by contrast, is an EOD, someone who's entire job is to keep weapons from going off as a defense. He's not a leader or groundbreaker and even borders on pacifistic given he doesn't fire a single shot in the whole movie with his only hostile action being detonating the MUTO nest.
Japan is a culture that traditionally put a heavy emphasis on collective identity and pride. If that pride is wounded, that means the identity and existence itself has been damaged. Historically before unification, this collectiveness was chiefly focused around the local lordships, clans, and city-states which extended to the Japanese nationality as a whole sometime after unification. In Haruo's case, this identity has extended to humanity as a whole and to him, an existence without some pride or honor with dignity was a slow demise; a thought not unfounded given the declining population on the Aratrum. He is an individual of a collective, thus his actions have a direct consequence on others; so he must make the big decisions to steer the whole of humanity towards a future.
American culture, by comparison, plays a bigger emphasis on individualism. As such while group pride is still a factor, collectiveness does not create an identity nor create much of a collective honor. Instead in an Abrahamic influenced society, there is a bit of a precedent to bending the knee to a higher power. Fighting when you can, but accepting some measures are out of control and perceived individualistic pursuits such as pride being put before the wellbeing ("Pursuit of happiness") of others is seen as a negative. In Ford's case, this leads to him not taking a stand at thinking he knew best for the collective and instead kept himself lower to the ground with less ambition for the sake of others. He is but an individual, therefore he only decides for himself.
Also, Haruo yells a lot even when he's alone whereas Ford doesn't emote much at all when not with family.
**EDIT**
Wow! Glad you all like it! After some more reflection, here's some more content I've cooked up.
A big matter that divides Haruo and Ford is the placement of pride and collectiveness. In traditional Japanese culture, people are typically seen as mechanisms to a whole and the leader gains power by their followers. This is something one can see everywhere if they squint. Ever wonder why so many Japanese children's shows have such heavy emphasis on groups of allies behind the main hero or the power of friendship being a literal power? There is also an ideal that a leader is such because of more than just competency or charisma, but because they are in the right. This is one of the reasons bosses hold so much power in Japanese work culture. Remarkableness is often seen as a trait elite have or people become the elite by being remarkable.
Haruo embodies this well given his rivals are shown as incompetent to various degrees and people readily follow him despite his controversial nature. He is also exceptionally skilled and determined to the end. And because traits are imposed from the leader to the group, matters of Haruo's pride and honor are thus applied to the whole because as the leader, he is remarkable and thus his ambitions are the best for everyone as the frontman for the whole. The whole is greater than the individual person's wants or desires. And if it is determined to be the greater good, it's worth even more so than their lives.
"Duty is heavier then a mountain, but death is lighter then a feather"
American culture contrasts this by emphasizing the parts to a whole of a machine. Collectives are there, but individualism plays a role over a social identity. Thus if matters of pride, honor, or strength are at play; those are all up to the individual person. To put ones pride over a group is seen as extremely selfish or outright dangerous because the greater individualism in the group means not everyone is obligated to agree with you unless they are fools or not cowed by your leadership. Trading lives for honor isn't seen as the ultimate service to the collective, but a tragedy of individual uniquness.
Leaders hold power, experience, or charisma if they are fit ones, but they are not always right and their followers are more prone to questioning them."War is not meant to be you dying for your country-it is by making the other bastard die for his."
Compare Ford's interaction with the ground team leader regarding the train nuke and Haruo's interaction with the Captain of the Aratrum are a good comparison. Haruo is a Japanese leader because he is morally, intellectually, or ability wise superior to Captain Mori, who is shown as incompetent or weak; thus he amasses followers because of such. Ford completely averts that ideal as while he is competent and skilled, he isn't any superman and the leader disregarding his techno-babble isn't treated as especially staining on his competency. And yet despite the fact he doesn't rally followers, take a leadership role, or head a collective; Ford is still shown as important and a person to follow who helps save the day in the end. This embodies the American ideal that being great doesn't put one into leadership and the 'smaller players' can still make big impacts. Being remarkable, doing remarkable things, and being a leader are not mutually tied into each other.
We even see this played out in the sense of obligation to the societies around them. Ford is returning home from a long tour of war. By all accounts, he has paid his dues to his society and his role in the collective grouping around him should be to retire. He's no superman and he's never even directly summoned by the call to action, so why get involved? Because he's an individual acting against expectations and going 'off script' because his choices as an individual for defense dictate he should save as many people as possible. Haruo, by comparison, is a leader who sees his duty as to steer the collective whole to the path he sees as best for them. His role isn't someone getting back into action, but someone pushing others to get into action. If he goes slack, he fails the collective and thus cannot ever stop once he has gotten them started. This is why he won't accept ideas to make just an outpost for resources on Earth before leaving or stopping his campaign after Godzilla Earth totals his forces. Once on this path, group conscious driven by him demands it escalate.
Interestingly though, the movies contrast heavily in that G'2014 vindicates Ford whereas AniGoji deconstructs Haruo. In the end Ford's humbleness, drive to protect others, not being ambitious, in a seat of leadership, or go on a revenge quest results in the MUTOs perishing, Godzilla departing peacefully, lots of people are still alive, and Ford is reunited with his wife and son where he gets to be a normal man coming home from war. Haruo was ambitious, he was focused on a revenge quest, he seized power in leadership, and his goal was situated upon pride. In the end, this left him numb to the affections of Yuko, a chance at being a normal man and have happiness, was blind to the machinations of the alien species who manipulated him, gets most of his teams killed, and disrupts the Houtua's way of life. Ford gets a happy ending by following the path he chose where as Haruo's only shot at such is pretty abundantly made clear to be NOT on the path he's on.
Lt. Ford Brody is the American ideals of individualism and duties vindicated by the film. Cpt. Haruo Sakaki is the Japanese ideals of collective pride, power, and leadership at first played straight, and then deconstructed.
