(Hiroshima) The movie Oppenheimer dedicated to the American physicist father of the atomic bomb was acclaimed on Sunday at the Oscars, but in Hiroshima, the Japanese city devastated by the first atomic bomb in 1945, the film about the creator of this weapon is awaited with caution.
“Is this really a film that the people of Hiroshima can bear to watch? “, asks Kyoko Heya, president of the International Film Festival in this city in western Japan.
Crowned Sunday in Hollywood with the Oscar for best film and that of best director for Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer which won seven statuettes, enjoyed great success all over the world last summer, except in Japan, where it was absent from cinemas.
It will be visible there from March 29.
No official reason had been given for the delay, fueling speculation that the film was too sensitive to release in Japan.
More than 140,000 people were killed in Hiroshima and 74,000 in Nagasaki when the United States dropped atomic bombs on those cities days before the end of World War II.
Initially doubtful, Kyoko Heya, 69, decided to organize a special screening on Tuesday for high school students in the city. “I thought the people of Hiroshima should watch it,” she told AFP.
“I saw this film myself from the point of view of a resident of Hiroshima,” she said, from the city’s Peace Memorial Park, near where the woman is believed to have fallen. bomb and where the ruins of a famous domed building recall the horrors of the attack, as does a nearby museum.
Mme Heya found the film “very America-centric” and was initially “terrified” to screen it in Hiroshima, now a metropolis of 1.2 million people.
“I now hope that a lot of people will watch the film, because I would be happy to see Hiroshima, Nagasaki and atomic weapons become topics of discussion thanks to this film,” she slips.
“What is this strength? »
Yu Sato, a 22-year-old student at Hiroshima University who works with survivors of the bombing, said she was “a little afraid” of their reaction and that of their families.
“To be honest, I have mixed feelings,” she admits. “ Oppenheimer created the atomic bomb, making this world a very scary place.” And “even if he did not intend to kill many people, he cannot be considered completely free of responsibility.”
Last summer, the simultaneous releases ofOppenheimer and the movie barbie had spawned countless memes on the internet, with images combining the two films, which shocked public opinion in Japan, the only country to have suffered a nuclear attack during wartime.
The triumph ofOppenheimer at the Oscars immediately sparked reactions from Japanese netizens, with one calling the film’s track record “overwhelming” and wondering about X “what is this strength?” It must be one hell of a masterpiece.”
Another suggested: “Maybe it’s time someone made a movie about the atomic bombs from the perspective of Japan or a Japanese person.”
The martyrdom of Hiroshima was notably brought to the screen with Hiroshima, my love by director Alain Resnais, Franco-Japanese co-production on a screenplay by Marguerite Duras, presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 1959, but excluded from competition due to American pressure.
In Hiroshima, foreign tourists interviewed confided the importance, in their opinion, of art telling the story even if it is unpleasant.
“I was quite impressed by the film” about J. Robert Oppenheimer, admits one of them, Singh, 67, from the United Kingdom. “There are always questions about the accuracy of these films, but I think it is important that future generations know what happened.”
For his wife Jaz Grewal, 65, it is a “very difficult” subject, but “the future generation should not forget, we should never forget, because history repeats itself in an unbearable way,” insists -she.