In a rare move, the official Japanese Barbie movie Twitter account issued a chastising statement in response to the American account posting a Barbenheimer meme with the caption “It’s going to be a summer to remember.” The Japanese account called the trend “extremely regrettable.”
For context, the movie Oppenheimer and Barbie are currently dominating the box office, and people have unofficially started using the term Barbenheimer to describe the cultural force of the two movies.
For deeper context (historical, this time): Oppenheimer tells the story of Robert Oppenheimer, the “father of the atomic bomb.” Those bombs were dropped by the United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan on August 6 and 9, 1945. As a result, almost a quarter of a million people died – mostly civilians. With this in mind, it’s easy to see why Japan would be upset by people in the U.S. casually celebrating a movie that’s about the mass murder of Japanese civilians.
Here’s the tweet:
It's going to be a summer to remember
— Barbie Movie (@barbiethemovie) July 21, 2023
Is it insensitive? It’s hard to make the argument that it’s not, even if it doesn’t feel intentional on the part of U.S. moviegoers. Regardless, it’s pretty messed up. The Japanese response:
Here’s the translation:
“About the SNS [Social Networking Service] posting of the movie ‘Barbie’
Currently, the movie ‘Barbie’ (Distributor: Warner Bros.) and the movie ‘Oppenheimer’ (Distributor: Universal Pictures) were both released in the United States on July 21. #Barbenheimer is happening, but this movement and activity is not official. On the other hand, we believe that the inconsiderate action of the official account of the US headquarters of the movie ‘Barbie’ to the social media posts by fans caused by this movement is extremely regrettable, and we take this situation seriously. We are asking the US headquarters to take appropriate action. We apologize to those who were offended by this series of inconsiderate reactions.
Warner Bros. Japan G.K.”
In response, people have been posting disturbing images from the bombing, including one where a person was vaporized so completely only a shadow remained. Others show fields of dead bodies or disfigured, radiation-poisoned children.
One person shared shredded clothing from dead children.
Another said: “How dare can you, the official account, make fun of this unacceptable meme? You should visit the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima and get to know what actually happened there. It is one of the worst crimes against humanity.”
Others pointed out how Americans are seemingly preoccupied with politically correctness, but somehow not about this.
I absolutely can't condone the act of jokingly spreading tweets that make fun of the atomic bombing that killed so many people in Japan. I strongly demand that the related tweets be immediately retracted and deleted. #Berbenheimer #NoBarbenheimer
— からふね(@karafune) July 31, 2023
The official Barbie account has yet to respond, but we’ll update you if or when it does.
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