Oppenheimer
From the front page of the Saturday, March 30th Japan Times print newspaper, accompanying the story “‘Oppenheimer’ released in Japan.” A poster for “Oppenheimer” is displayed at a theater in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward on Friday. The film’s Japan debut came eight months after its global release.
Japan started the war. Japan waged the war in a notoriously heinous and criminal fashion. Japan refused to give up the war long after its cause was lost. And, Japan allied itself with the goddamned Nazis!
Release of the film was delayed in Japan because some here objected to the exclusion from the movie of the effects of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It’s a constant Japanese fetish. It's an irrelevant and misplaced fetish, too, because the movie is not about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It’s about the Manhattan Project that produced the weapon, hence there is absolutely no need for the movie to go into the actual bombings of Japan and the terrible effects on the ground here. The Manhattan Project by itself is enough of a story.
Remember, the Japanese were the bad guys, and no apology is necessary for use of the atom bomb. Japan started the war. Japan waged the war in a notoriously heinous and criminal fashion. Japan refused to give up the war long after its cause was lost. And, Japan allied itself with the goddamned Nazis! So, no apologies required. But today, some still want to paint themselves as the victims of the war more than the perpetrators of it. Or not.
I saw the movie here online months ago, so I don’t see what the big deal is about its theatrical release being delayed. It has easily been available online all along.