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Please don't make light of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the suffering of the victims and survivors.

We are Voices of Hiroshima & Nagasaki, a group of young activists from Hiroshima and Nagasaki who got together to raise voice against the downplaying of the atrocities of nuclear weapons.

The live-action film “Barbie” and the film “Oppenheimer”, which depicts the life of the physicist who developed atomic bombs, were released in the United States on the same day on July 21. The two films have been getting a lot of public attention, with the hashtag #Barbenheimer promoting the simultaneous theatrical releases going viral.

Among the craze, we have seen memes that combine imagery from the two films; many of these make light of the suffering of atomic bomb victims and survivors and the devastating damages of the atomic bombs.

What’s more, the official X (formerly Twitter) account of the Barbie film responded positively to those memes, even tweeting “It’s going to be a summer to remember (with kiss and heart emojis)”.

Japan did wage war against the US, committed atrocities during the war, and experienced atomic bombing. In a few days, we commemorate the 78th anniversary since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

With the anniversary of the atomic bombings of  Hiroshima and Nagaski fast approaching on August 6 and 9, we are deeply angered and saddened by these reactions endorsing highly insensitive jokes.

In response to #Barbenheimer, there has been #NoBarbenheimer movement on social media, criticizing the insensitivity of such memes. #NoBarbenheimer is trending on X (Twitter) in Japan.
Some of the #NoBarbenheimer posts point out this would not have happened if the films were about the September 11 attacks or the Nazis.

We cannot help but feel that this insensitive #Barbenheimer movement completely downplays the atrocities of the atomic bombs.

Warner Bros. Japan, the distributor of the “Barbie” film in Japan, issued a statement titled “Regarding social media posts about the movie Barbie” on its X (Twitter) account at 18:24 JST on July 31. The statement reads: “we find the reaction to this fan-driven movement from the official US account for the movie Barbie to be extremely regrettable. We take this very seriously and are asking the US head office to take appropriate action. We apologize to those offended by these inconsiderate actions.” In response, on August 1 (or July 31 local time) Warners Bros. in the US has deleted the posts in question and also sent out a statement to the media that “Warner Brothers regrets its recent insensitive social media engagement. The studio offers a sincere apology.” We welcome the fast response from Warner Brothers.

However, we believe the #Barbenheimer movement is a clear indication that there is a widespread lack of awareness about the atrocities of atomic bombing. It is not enough to simply delete tweets and issue an apology statement to the media.

We therefore urge Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures, distributors of the Barbie and Oppenheimer films, to take the following actions:

1. To Warner Bros: Please publicly apologize on social media for your positive reactions to images and memes depicting atomic bombs.

After the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, about 140,000 people in Hiroshima and about 74,000 people in Nagasaki died by the end of the year. Those who survived had to live with various long-term health effects, trauma, and discrimination, and these still persist today even after 78 years.

It’s not just Japan that has been affected by nuclear weapons. Health effects due to radiation exposure from uranium mining and nuclear experiments have been recorded globally. The nuclear test “Trinity” where Oppenheimer himself was involved inflicted a lot of health damages to people in the US.

The official Barbie movie account’s positive reactions to #Barbenheimer movement completely disregards the suffering of atomic bomb victims and survivors and all those who have suffered from health impacts from radiation exposure globally.

For us, the “summer to remember” is not the summer when the two movies were released; it’s “the summer where atomic bombs took away hundreds of thousands of lives and completely destroyed cities.”

We also need to remember that there are still people who have suffered from radiation exposure, not just in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but also in other parts of the world.

2. Please issue an official statement calling for a ban on the use of the #Barbenheimer hashtag and a ban on memes and other images that make fun of the atomic bombing.

We cannot overlook the fact that in the #Barbenheimer movement, there are posts that downplay the damage caused by the atomic bombings, and even the official account has been involved in this. We call for responsible communication in respect of human suffering.

This petition does not deny the value of the two films or the commitment of those who have taken part in the production of these films. In particular, we welcome the release of the film Oppenheimer in the United States and the renewed debate about the justification of the use of the atomic bombs.

It is our hope that this will lead to a growing movement to rethink and debate about the fact there are still 12,000 nuclear weapons around the world.

3. Implement measures to prevent recurrence of similar incidents

Unfortunately, this is not the first time the devastation caused by the atomic bombs has been downplayed and ridiculed.

Whenever such an instance has occurred, there have been some comments of apology, such as "We apologize for any distress we have caused you.” However, we do not think it is an appropriate and responsible response to simply shift the issue to how the other party perceives it, or to make an apology without substance.

In order to prevent further downplaying or endorsement of such activities by official accounts in the future, please implement the actions outlined in the second request above as soon as possible, and also establish appropriate guidelines.

We currently live in a world where a nuclear threat is growing. In times like this, we believe that preventing the recurrence of similar incidents will lead to preventing the repetition of the devastation caused by nuclear weapons.

We want to remind ourselves and everyone that we could potentially and easily find ourselves becoming endorsers or complicit in wars. Atomic bomb survivors have told us that when they were younger, they supported the government without criticizing it and that as a result has led to the world war.
In any time of history, it is always the innocent citizens that fall victim to a war. We may unknowingly become complicit in destroying precious and innocent lives.
Prejudice we have in ourselves can lead to, in the worst possible case, wars; that is the lesson we must learn from history.
The #Barbenheimer incident has reminded us that ignorance can lead to discrimination.
There are many war damages and Japanese wrongdoings that we haven’t thoroughly learned about.
We must continue to learn from the past for the future.

This coming August 6 is the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and August 9 is the anniversary in Nagasaki. We are truly sad that this happened close to such important dates. It is heartbreaking to think how atomic bomb survivors must feel when they see these kinds of memes.We have been campaigning nuclear abolition and will continue to do so.

Please support and share our campaign and help us spread our voice to every corner of the world.

Voices of Hiroshima & Nagasaki