Barbie's Japanese Distributor Apologizes for Reactions to Barbenheimer Memes

August 1st, 3:27 PM EDT

Updated:

August 1st, 8:09 PM EDT

"Oppenheimer" is facing off against "Barbie" in the biggest clash of Hollywood summer blockbusters, with both opening on the same day in a duel the media has dubbed "Barbenheimer."

Photo by VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images

TOKYO (NEWSnet/AP) — The Japanese distributor of the Warner Bros. movie “Barbie” has apologized for its U.S. parent company’s reaction to social media posts about the “Barbenheimer” blitz that combined images of Barbie and a mushroom cloud.

The memes triggered criticisms in Japan for what many described as minimizing the 1945 atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The movie about the fashion doll toy and Universal Pictures' Oppenheimer, a biography of Robert Oppenheimer, who helped develop the weapon, were both released on July 21 in the United States, sparking a trend for watching both and prompting memes combining scenes from the two.

Some of the images, which were not created by Warner Bros., showed Margot Robbie, who played Barbie, sitting on the shoulders of Oppenheimer, played by Cillian Murphy, with an orange inferno of an atomic blast in the background.

The official Barbie account said in response to the combined Barbenheimer meme: “It’s going to be a summer to remember.”

In Japan, the only country to have suffered atomic attacks, the posts drew criticism for what was perceived as belittling remarks about nuclear attacks, triggering angry messages and trending on social media with the hashtag #NoBarbenheimer.

“We apologize to those who felt uncomfortable because of these inconsiderable reactions," Warner Bros. Japan said in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter.

The United States dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, destroying the city and killing 140,000 people. It dropped a second bomb three days later on Nagasaki, killing another 70,000.