Christopher Nolan’s Oscar-winning film, which tells the story of the creation of the atomic bomb, was released in July 2023 in the United States and France, but it is only shown in Japanese cinemas from Friday.
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A film about a very painful past. Oppenheimer by Christopher Nolan hits theaters in Japan on Friday March 29. Dedicated to the American physicist Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb, the 3-hour feature film enjoyed great success around the world last summer. It also won seven statuettes at the last Oscar ceremony, including those for best film and best director.
But in Japan, where nuclear weapons devastated the cities of Hiroshima and Nagazaki on August 6 and 9 in 1945, at the end of World War II, killing more than 214,000 people, it took more than six months for the film to be screened. No official reason has been given, but the film’s Japanese distributor, Bitters End, said in the American magazine Variety that he had made this decision “after months of reflection and discussion”. He emphasized “the particular sensitivity of the subject”.
Divergent points of view
At the beginning of March, the distributor ofOppenheimer in Japan organized a preview and a round table in the city of Hiroshima to assess public reaction before the official release of the film, reports the Asahi Shimbun. Several voices have expressed criticism, such as the former mayor of the city, Takashi Hiraoka, aged 96. He particularly regretted that the film did not show more “the horrors of nuclear weapons”, quotes the Japanese daily. He questioned the absence of images of devastated cities after the bombings. “The film was made in such a way as to validate the conclusion that the atomic bomb was used to save American lives”added the former city councilor of Hiroshima.
Another Hiroshima resident, Kyoko Heya, interviewed by AFP, also felt that the film was “very America-centric” but nevertheless wished “that many people [le] look” in order to initiate discussions on atomic weapons. Same impression for Yu Sato, 22-year-old student at Hiroshima University. “Meven if he [Robert Oppenheimer] did not intend to kill many people, he cannot be considered completely free of responsibility”she observed to AFP.
“This film shows the divergence of views between the Americans and the Japanese on what happened in 1945, explains Yuta Yagishita, journalist at International mailat franceinfo. There is a fundamental difference between Americans who believe that these bombings were necessary to end the war and that they may have even saved Japanese lives by stopping the conflict., he explains. On the Japanese side, the memory of these events is still very painful and remains central to national identity, with in particular a whole literature devoted to the victims, the “hibakusha”underlines Yuta Yagishita.
Public opinion shocked
In January 2023, director Christopher Nolan justified the lack of representation of Japanese victims in his film by explaining that “to deviate from Oppenheimer’s experience would betray the terms of the narrative”, quotes NBC News. His feature film is also inspired by a biography of the physicist: Robert Oppenheimer: Triumph and tragedy of a geniuswritten by American authors Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. “He learned about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the radio, like the rest of the worlddefends the filmmaker. As I keep reminding everyone, this is not a documentary. It’s an interpretation. It’s my job.”
Last summer, the simultaneous releases of Oppenheimer and the movie barbie also caused a stir in Japan, as they spawned countless memes on the internet. Under the hashtag #Barbenheimer, numerous images associating the doll with the atomic bomb have circulated, shocking public opinion. “You should visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and learn what happened there. It is one of the gravest crimes against humanity.” Or “We Japanese will never forget that summer”denounced Internet users, publishing photos of burned children’s clothes found in the rubble of bombed cities.
Warner Bros, the distributor of barbie, apologized after relaying certain montages and the hashtag #NoBarbenheimer, circulated to stop these publications. For Luli van der Does, sociologist at Hiroshima University, cited by The echoes, he is “painful to see that young people have no idea of the atrocity of using nuclear weapons against human beings”.