The Oscars were a great night for “Oppenheimer,” but in Hiroshima – the city devastated by the first bomb dropped in 1945 – the film about its creator is more difficult to watch.
Kyoko Heya said, “Is it really a film that the people of Hiroshima will watch?” Kyoko Heya is the president of Hiroshima’s International Film Festival. The blockbuster had won seven Academy Awards, including the best picture.
Christopher Nolan was also named best director for his biopic. The film was a worldwide hit last summer, except in Japan, where it wasn’t shown.
The film was not shown in Japan because of the sensitive subject matter. There was no official announcement at the time.
About 140,000 people were killed in Hiroshima and 74,000 in Nagasaki after the United States dropped the atomic bombs in the cities days before the end of World War II.
Heya, the Japanese distributor of “Oppenheimer,” organized a special screening for high school students on Tuesday.
The 69-year-old woman told AFP that Nolan’s film was “very America-centric” in the Peace Memorial Park of the city, near the hypocentre of the bomb.
Oppenheimer’s Oscar night was a success, but in Hiroshima – the city devastated by the first bomb dropped in 1945 – the film about its creator is more difficult to watch.
The ruins of an octagonal building, a museum, and other sad memorials are all located in the park.
Heya was initially “terrified” about the prospect that it would be screened in Hiroshima. Today, this thriving metropolis has 1.2 million residents.
She finally stopped questioning the decision she made.
She said, “I want to encourage people to watch this film, as I would be delighted to see Hiroshima and Nagasaki, along with atomic weapons, become the topic of discussion thanks to the movie.”
The film will be screened in Nagasaki just before its official release.
Yu Sato, 22, a student at Hiroshima City University, said that she was “a little scared” of how the Oscar-winning movie would affect bomb survivors and their family members.
Sato, a student who is working with survivors, said, “I’m honest, I have mixed feelings.”
She said: “Oppenheimer invented the atomic weapon, which is to say that he has made this world an extremely scary place.”
“Even though he didn’t intend to kill many, he can’t be considered completely inexcusable.”
Nolan said he found a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography on J. Robert Oppenheimer – the physicist responsible for the invention of atomic weapons – and was inspired to create “Oppenheimer.”
Last year, the film was released the same day as Barbie. This sparked countless memes and viral videos about the “Barbenheimer phenomenon.”
These jokes, however, sparked outrage online in Japan – the only country that has suffered a nuclear wartime attack – and on social media, users reacted quickly to the Oscars win for “Oppenheimer.”
On X (formerly Twitter), a user called the film’s seven wins “overwhelming” and asked: “What strength is this?” One user on X, formerly Twitter, called the movie’s seven victories “overwhelming,” asking: “What is this strength?
It’s about time someone produced a film on atomic bombs from the point of view of Japan or Japanese people.