If Robert Oppenheimer’s laboratory is the birthplace of the atomic bomb, Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki can be analogized as its anti-birthplace. The cities were obliterated 79 years ago due to nuclear weapons developed by the scientists that are the subject matter of the film.
For the very same reason, Christopher Nolan’s multiple Oscar-winning feature film ‘Oppenheimer’ was released in Japan recently, after eight months of its US premiere. Due to the sensitivity of the matter at hand, Japanese filmgoers’ reactions were understandably mixed and highly emotional.
While ‘Oppenheimer‘ does not directly depict what happened on the ground when the bombs were dropped, it is widespread knowledge that around 100,000 people were instantly turned to ashes, and even more were killed in the days that followed. What’s more disturbing is that the casualties were mostly civilians.
The film focuses on Oppenheimer as a person and his internal conflicts about nuclear weaponry. The audience’s opinions upon watching the movie were inevitably divided. Some believed that the horror of the weapons was not sufficiently depicted from a Japanese vantage, whereas others praised the careful depiction of such a volatile subject.
Takashi Yamazaki, director of Godzilla Minus One, expressed his desire for a Japanese response to the film. Which is to say, now that the world has seen the inner turmoil of the ‘Father of the Atomic Bomb’, is it ready to witness the horror that was unleased upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nevertheless?