Screentime
‘Barbenheimer’ Nuclear Memes Stir Anger in Japan
- Social-media accounts decry atomic bomb-related memes
- Uproar forces Japan distributor of ‘Barbie’ to respond
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The double dose of American movie hits known as “Barbenheimer” is fueling a social-media backlash in Japan, the only country to have experienced nuclear-weapon attacks.
The meme combining Oppenheimer, a biography of the inventor of the atomic bomb, and Barbie, a comedy about the fashion doll, had already been trending on X, formerly known as Twitter. Japanese users, who were already embracing the “#NoBarbenheimer” hashtag, were provoked further when the US account for the Barbie film chimed in with a post saying: “It’s going to be a summer to remember.”