Jokey ‘Barbenheimer’ references offend a conflicted Japan

SEOUL, South Korea — As U.S. audiences flock to summer time blockbusters “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” memes that conflate the 2 films have brought on angst in Japan, the one nation on earth to endure atomic bombings.

With Hollywood hammered by the lengthy aftermath of COVID-19 and the writers’ strike, studio executives are reportedly delighted on the large audiences pouring into cinemas to observe the 2 box-office hits, with followers typically taking in each movies in a single sitting.

But the “Barbenheimer” craze is enjoying very otherwise for Japan. Many have taken to social media to say that they aren’t amused by the development, which incorporates photographs of laughing Barbie and Ken faces superimposed onto fiery atomic explosions.

The concept of pairing a lighthearted fantasy about an American doll with one of many grimmest moments in Japanese historical past is rubbing many the improper approach.

“Nuclear weapons aren’t cool,” one poster wrote of the advert marketing campaign selling the 2 films as a package deal.

Warner Bros. Japan LLC, the distributor of “Barbie” within the nation, complained in an announcement 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 information service reported.

According to new leisure information website Deadline, Warner Bros. Film Group responded, saying, “Warner Brothers regrets its recent insensitive social media engagement. The studio offers a sincere apology.”

While “Barbie” is reportedly set to open in Japan on Aug. 11, there’s — as but — no launch date set for “Oppenheimer,” which tracks the life story of the American physicist who headed the trouble throughout World War II to construct the primary atomic bombs.

Time sensitivities, conflicted remembrances

An August launch in Japan might show particularly tough. The anniversaries of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki fall on respectively, Aug. 6 and Aug. 9. On Aug. 15, Imperial Japan surrendered unconditionally, ending World War II.

Elsewhere in Asia, the latter date is extra upbeat.

In South Korea, the place Japan’s 35-year colonial rule that led to 1945 is roundly thought-about a disaster, Universal Studios is ready to launch “Oppenheimer” on Aug. 15, “Liberation Day,” in line with native media stories.

Modern, democratic Japan has emerged as a essential U.S. ally in East Asia, however a large spectrum of in style opinion on World War II endures. Critiques of imperial aggression and cruelty are balanced towards a way of Japanese victimhood underneath a militaristic Tokyo authorities and waves of U.S. bombardments of main cities within the battle’s ultimate months.

“I would say the average Japanese is conflicted,” mentioned movie producer Keiko Hagihara Bang, a Japanese-American. She famous that the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima, website of the primary atomic bombing, whereas exhibiting photos of Japanese atrocities such because the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, “then goes on and on about the nuclear arms race.”

A Japanese pal who watched “Oppenheimer” within the U.S., she mentioned, was impressed by the movie’s artistry however dismayed by its failure to point out the human penalties of its topic’s invention.

Conventional knowledge states that the 1945 atomic bombings saved lives by obviating an all-out invasion of Japan. But some imagine that the Soviet invasion of Manchuria was equally vital, and Oppenheimer himself was one who believed that the second bombing of Nagasaki was pointless to pressure Tokyo’s give up.

There is a wider debate inside Japan on the battle.

On the suitable, some argue that Tokyo fought a simply battle towards white colonialism in Asia, and query particulars of such atrocities because the Nanjing Massacre and the “comfort women” recruited from South Korea and elsewhere to serve Japanese troopers.

Right-wing politicians courtroom displeasure in neighboring nations with visits to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine. There, Japan’s battle useless — together with former officers convicted as battle criminals after the battle — are enshrined, whereas an onsite battle museum ignores Japanese atrocities.

On the left, there have been in-depth findings on battle and wartime cruelties, with Japanese researchers delving deep into such horrors as Unit 731, a germ-warfare unit.

War of the battle movies

The conflicting themes are mirrored in Japan’s personal movie historical past.

The 2005 movie “Yamato” glorifies the sacrificial mission of the world’s largest big-gun warship, destroyed by U.S. naval air forces off Okinawa in 1945. By distinction, “Fires on the Plain,” made in 1959, reveals the hardships endured by Japanese infantry struggling to outlive within the war-torn Philippines.

Other movies are tough to categorize — such because the devastating “Grave of the Fireflies” (1988), broadly thought-about one of many best battle movies ever made. An anime a few younger boy and his tiny sister in the course of the fire-bombing of Japan within the battle’s final months, it takes a “no heroes, no villains” strategy, focusing as a substitute on the harmless younger victims. 

Released alongside the animated fantasy “My Neighbor Totoro,” the film helped kick-start legendary anime home Studio Ghibli.

Ms. Keiko Hagihara Bang, who labored on a documentary by which survivors of battleship Yamato spoke, discovered veterans had been frank.