Oppenheimer from a Japanese American Perspective

By: Jenna Jenkerson

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Watching Oppenheimer as a half Japanese person is...different from my peers. I’ve been to Japan, my mother’s home country, almost annually. I even lived in Japan for six years when I was younger, but I was too young to learn about the bombings at that age. I have personally never been to either Hiroshima or Nagasaki, but I've heard first-hand of the sadness following the bombing and of the still-mourning people of the country. So, when I went to the theatre to watch Oppenheimer, I was quite surprised to see limited exposure of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  

After the bombings, we see some of the effects of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, such as radiation sickness and burns on the Los Alamos Citizens as Oppenheimer is giving a speech in Los Alamos’ town hall. We hear the sounds being removed from the clips and see bright white lights. We see citizens’ faces start to melt and see horrific burns on their bodies. Oppenheimer is sickened and appalled of the damages of his creation as he gives his speech. Later, he is seen reacting to images of the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with no photos being shown of the destruction. 

But this is all we see of the effects of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. No footage of the bombing. No footage of Japanese people dying. And that is one of the few flaws from this movie. If you're going to make 75% of the movie about how Oppenheimer and his team are building an atomic bomb, you would show some type of footage of the actual explosion right? Which in my opinion makes no sense because the whole movie is built up to the point of the explosion and how much of a psychological effect it has on Oppenheimer himself.  

It feels almost disrespectful to have such little parts of the movie talking about the effects of the bombing on Japanese civilians. The bombing was such a major world event, leading to powerful countries having their own nuclear weapons and major political events ever since such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cold War. Many events after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings have been caused by the effects of this singular event. 

But there is a reason for this, according to the movie’s director, Christopher Nolan.   

When talking to Chuck Todd of NBC’s Meet the Press, Nolan said "But the feeling for me as a filmmaker was very strongly that to depart from Oppenheimer’s experience would betray the terms of the storytelling." 

I believe there are ways to not depart from his experience and show more of the detrimental effects of the bombings. For example, after the bombing, most of the movie was focused on Oppenheimer’s security clearance trial. Instead, the movie should focus a little more of the movie on the experience of the people in the airplane who did the actual bombing of the two cities, through the perspective of Oppenheimer being told on what happened during the airplane. This would not only include the perspectives of the people in the airplane, who didn’t know the scope of what they had just done and Oppenheimer himself, who later went on to campaign against nuclear weapons. I also think showing the explosion of the bomb, which was not shown at all, would improve the portrayal of the victims.  

For a good viewing experience, Oppenheimer meets almost all the requirements, including amazing acting from all the stars, stellar cinematography and technological advancements made just for the movie. However, with an inclusion of a few scenes and a removal of some, Oppenheimer will be the definite movie of the year