SEOUL, South Korea — Summer blockbusters “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” are enthralling American audiences, but memes that conflate the two movies have caused angst in Japan, the only nation to endure atomic bombings.
With Hollywood hammered by the aftermath of the long COVID-19 restrictions and the writers and actors strikes, studio executives are reportedly delighted by the hordes of people pouring into cinemas. Some fans take in both films in a single day.
The “Barbenheimer” craze is playing differently in Japan. Many on social media say they are not amused by images of laughing Barbie and Ken faces superimposed onto fiery atomic explosions.
The idea of pairing a lighthearted fantasy about an American doll with one of the grimmest moments in Japanese history is rubbing many the wrong way.
“Nuclear weapons aren’t cool,” one poster wrote of the ad campaign promoting the two movies as a package.
Warner Bros. Japan LLC, the distributor of “Barbie” in the country, complained in a statement about messages posted by the studio’s U.S. headquarters. The messages, which positively referenced the Barbenheimer memes, “lack consideration” and are “very regrettable,” the Kyodo news service reported.
According to entertainment news site Deadline, the Warner Bros. film group responded by saying, “Warner Brothers regrets its recent insensitive social media engagement. The studio offers a sincere apology.”
“Barbie” is reportedly scheduled to open in Japan on Aug. 11, but no release date has been set for “Oppenheimer,” which tracks the story of the American physicist who headed the World War II effort to build the first atomic bombs.
Time sensitivities, conflicted remembrances
An August release of “Oppenheimer” in Japan could prove especially tricky. The anniversaries of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki fall on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, respectively. On Aug. 15, imperial Japan surrendered unconditionally, ending World War II.
Elsewhere in Asia, the surrender date is more upbeat.
Universal Studios is set to release “Oppenheimer” on Aug. 15, South Korea’s “Liberation Day,” according to local media reports. Japan’s 35-year colonial rule, roundly considered a catastrophe, ended in 1945.
Modern, democratic Japan has emerged as a critical U.S. ally in East Asia, but a wide spectrum of popular opinion on World War II endures. Critiques of imperial aggression and cruelty are balanced against a sense of Japanese victimhood under a militaristic Tokyo government and waves of U.S. bombardments of major cities in the war’s final months.
“I would say the average Japanese is conflicted,” said film producer Keiko Hagihara Bang, a Japanese American. She noted that the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima, the site of the first atomic bombing, displays pictures of Japanese atrocities such as the 1937 Nanjing massacre and “then goes on and on about the nuclear arms race.”
She said a Japanese friend who watched “Oppenheimer” in the U.S. was impressed by the film’s artistry but dismayed that it did not show the human consequences of its subject’s invention.
Conventional wisdom says the 1945 atomic bombings saved lives by obviating an all-out invasion of Japan. Still, some say the Soviet invasion of Manchuria was equally significant and note that Oppenheimer believed the bombing of Nagasaki was unnecessary to force Tokyo’s surrender.
Debate on the war inside Japan is wider.
On the right, some argue that Tokyo fought a just war against White colonialism in Asia and question details of atrocities such as the Nanjing massacre and the “comfort women” recruited from South Korea and elsewhere to serve Japanese soldiers.
Right-wing politicians court displeasure in neighboring nations with visits to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine. The shrine honors Japan’s war dead, including officials convicted as war criminals. An on-site war museum is devoid of Japanese atrocities.
On the left are in-depth findings on war and wartime cruelties. Japanese researchers have delved deep into horrors such as Unit 731, a germ warfare unit.
War of the war films
The conflicting themes are reflected in Japan’s film history.
The 2005 film “Yamato” glorifies the sacrificial mission of the world’s largest big-gun warship, which U.S. naval air forces off Okinawa destroyed in 1945. By contrast, “Fires on the Plain,” filmed in 1959, shows the hardships of Japanese infantry struggling to survive in the war-torn Philippines.
Other films are difficult to categorize. The devastating “Grave of the Fireflies” (1988) is widely considered one of the greatest war films ever made. The anime about a boy and his tiny sister during the firebombing of Japan in the war’s last months takes a “no heroes, no villains” approach and focuses instead on the innocent young victims.
Released alongside the animated fantasy “My Neighbor Totoro,” the movie helped kick-start legendary anime house Studio Ghibli.
Ms. Bang, who worked on a documentary that included stories of survivors of the battleship Yamato, found that veterans were frank.
“When I did the Yamato documentary, it was interesting, as I had heard that these warriors died crying to the emperor,” she said. “But one of the last survivors told me that they died screaming for their mothers.”
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