A hashtag circulating on social media that seems to lightly associate American blockbusters Barbie and Oppenheimer has sparked outrage in Japan. This phenomenon, dubbed “Barbenheimer”, a pun combining the names of the famous doll and the designer of the atomic bomb, appeared after the two films were released simultaneously in many countries at the end of July. On social networks, Internet users were encouraged to view the two works one after the other.
But this “hashtag” was soon accompanied by the appearance on the Internet of “memes”, graphic montages of sometimes dubious taste, showing for example the heroes of the film Barbie in front of a mushroom cloud, which provoked protests Internet users, particularly in Japan, a country that suffered the consequences of nuclear weapons in 1945. A few days before the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which killed more than 210,000 people on August 6 and 9, 1945, the hashtag
The controversy escalated further after the official American Barbie movie Twitter account (renamed “X”) appeared to encourage the Barbenheimer phenomenon by responding to one of the memes with the words: “It’s going to be a summer memorable. The message, which appears to have since been deleted, even prompted an appalled comment from the Japanese division of Warner Bros., the producer of the Barbie movie, on Monday.
“We find the inconsiderate reaction extremely regrettable” from Barbie’s official account, reads this statement posted on the film’s Japanese account, adding, “We take this situation very seriously and demand an appropriate response from from the American headquarters” of the studios.
“How dare you…make fun of this unacceptable meme?” A Japanese netizen replied in English to the post, adding, “You should visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and learn what happened there.” It is one of the most serious crimes against humanity. “We Japanese will never forget that summer,” responded another netizen, attaching photographs of burnt children’s clothes found in the rubble of the atomic bomb.
The Barbie movie” will be released in Japan on August 11th. Oppenheimer, on the other hand, does not yet have a release date in the archipelago, where Western films often arrive several months after their original release.
