Critics say omitting the Japanese toll makes ‘Oppenheimer’ ‘morally half-formed’
LA TimesOn Aug. 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, instantly killing thousands of civilians and devastating thousands more. But for some observers, the movie, based on Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s 2005 biography “American Prometheus,” centers Oppenheimer’s perspective without acknowledging the human toll of his technology. Additionally, other than one throwaway line, there is no reference to the effect atomic testing had on Native Americans in New Mexico, known as “downwinders.” Though critics acknowledge Nolan’s fidelity to Oppenheimer’s own perspective, they point to the contrasting lack of representation of the Japanese loss of life as one of the film’s signal failures. Though Japanese audiences have yet to see “Oppenheimer,” the meme-fication of the film, alongside “Barbie,” hasn’t landed there in the same way. “I would hope that many people would at least be moved by ‘Oppenheimer’ to seek out what other aspects might have been there,” Wake says.
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