Jul 15, 2023 (screenrant.com) - There is speculation that Oppenhimer will not be released in Japan.
While there's no confirmation that Nolan's film will depict the catastrophe of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the story and subject matter are so closely tied to the atomic bombings of the Japanese cities. The atomic bomb created by The Manhattan Project was used by the United Nations in 1945 to bomb the cities, which killed around 200,000 civilians, and it's the only time nuclear weapons have been used in an armed conflict. As the bombings were in relatively recent history, a lot of families are still understandably traumatized, and a three-hour movie about the creation of the bomb obviously wouldn't help.
Other movies have been banned in Japan in the past, but most of those films were banned due to graphic sex scenes (In the Realm of the Senses) or because they were disrespectful to the ruler of Japan (The Mikado). Japan has previously tried to ban other films, most notably Battle Royale, but not primarily because of the action movie's graphic violence. There was an attempt by Japanese officials to ban Battle Royale because of its depiction of a crumbling society in Japan. While not linked to the country's history, the reason for the attempt to ban Battle Royale closely resemble why Oppenheimer might be banned, as they could both be seen as traumatic by Japanese natives. ...continue reading
