Warner Bros. Japan Apologizes Over 'Offensive' Barbenheimer Meme

Warner Bros Japan has apologized after an official Barbie Movie account responded positively to a Barbenheimer meme that offended many social media users in the country.

The apology shared by the @BarbieMovie_jp Twitter account on July 31 said the tweet shared by its U.S.-based branch was "regrettable."

The critical statement came after the Twitter account @DiscussingFilm shared a fan-made poster for a fictional Barbenheimer film by artist Steve Reeves that went viral with more than 9 million views.

The fictional poster featured Oppenheimer actor Cillian Murphy carrying Barbie star Margot Robbie on his shoulder as fires burn in the background. It's a play on the viral "Barbenheimer" phenomenon as both movies were released in cinemas on July 21.

In response to the post, the @barbiethemovie account replied on July 21, adding: "It's going to be a summer to remember."

But the response was met with anger among Japanese social media users who believed the post made light of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the final phase of World War 2.

While recorded death tolls are estimates, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons stated 140,000 people were killed in Hiroshima and a further 74,000 in Nagasaki.

In the years following the bombing, many of those who survived developed cancer or suffered serious side effects from the radiation.

Warner Bros. Film Group said in a statement sent to Newsweek: "Warner Brothers regrets its recent insensitive social media engagement. The studio offers a sincere apology."

A July 31 statement signed by Warner Bros. Japan G.K. hit out at the Barbenheimer meme and branded the Barbie Movie's response as "inconsiderate."

The statement translated from Japanese to English via Google said: "About the Social Networking Service (SNS) posting of the movie 'Barbie.' Currently, the movie 'Barbie' [was] released in the U.S. on July 21 (distributor: Warner Bros) and the movie Oppenheimer (Distributor: Universal Bipicture) #Barbenheimer is taking place, but this movement and activity is not official.

"On the other hand, the movie 'Barbie,' which was made in response to a fan's SNS post due to this movement, I think that the inconsiderate reaction of the official account of the U.S. headquarters is extremely regrettable.

"We take this situation very seriously and are requesting the U.S. headquarters to take appropriate measures. We apologize to those who were offended by this series of inconsiderate reactions."

Since being shared, the post has been viewed more than 9 million times on Twitter.

Jeffrey J. Hall, a PhD Special Lecturer at Kanda University of International Studies, told Newsweek: "Japanese social media users find the meme offensive as it uses mushroom clouds and nuclear explosions for humor."

He added: "This might just seem like just another big explosion for the people making the memes, but to the Japanese, it represents the atomic bombing of two major cities and the tragic death of over 100,000 civilians."

The online reaction culminated in many Japanese social media accounts learning about the meme in late July and led to the hashtag #NoBarbenheimer going viral in the country.

There were others who responded to the Barbie movie account's original reaction to the meme with anger.

Verified account @creator3077, whose comment was viewed more than 34,300 times, said: "Just as we Japanese must not forget Pearl Harbour, you Americans must not forget Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"Japan and the United States of America, once enemies, are now dear friends across the Pacific. I find these film advertisements very sad."

The account @karafune, whose comment was seen an estimated 219,100 times posted: "I absolutely can't condone the at of jokingly spreading tweets that make fun of the atomic bombing that killed so many people in Japan. I strongly demand that the related tweets be immediately retracted and deleted."

While @gupaoooon's tweet viewed more than 2.2 million times said: "I never support #Barbenheimer. #NoBarbenheimer. In response to the acceleration of terrible photo collages/memes that make fun of the dropping of the atomic bomb by combining the two works, the official account, far from being a passive observer, was favorably riding on it as of July 21. Companies/ adults got on this using the work that 'children' love…it's the worst…"

Hall further told Newsweek: "Many of the Japanese who died in the atomic bombings were children, the target age of Barbie dolls. So it's shocking to them that a movie associated with children's toys would endorse jokes about the atomic bombing that killed so many children.

"This is not an objection to the existence of a movie like Oppenheimer, but rather an objection to atomic bomb jokes in the context of a film that is about the creation of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan.

"This probably wouldn't have got much attention in Japan if it was just random fans on the internet making memes. This really went viral when Japanese Twitter users started sharing tweets from the Barbie movie's official Twitter account that were cheerfully engaging with a-bomb Barbenheimer memes."

Both Barbie and Oppenheimer have been critical and commercial successes and have each earned hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office.

Barbie is set to be released in Japan on Friday, August 11.

Update 8/1/23, 03:00 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to include comment from Warner Bros. Film Group.