"Oppenheimer" made its long-awaited Japanese premiere on Friday, evoking mixed emotions in the nation devastated nearly 80 years ago by the nuclear weapons developed by the titular scientist.
The film was released in the U.S. in July, but came to Japan on the heels of its recent success at the Academy Awards, where it won seven Oscars including Best Picture.
Japanese audiences' responses were mixed and emotional.
Toshiyuki Mimaki, who survived the Hiroshima bombing at the age of 3, shared his enduring fascination with the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, often referred to as "the father of the atomic bomb" due to his pivotal role in spearheading the Manhattan Project.
"What were the Japanese thinking, carrying out the attack on Pearl Harbor, starting a war they could never hope to win," he asked in a telephone interview with the Associated Press.
Now serving as the chairperson of a group of bomb victims called the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organization, Mimaki saw "Oppenheimer" at a preview event.
"During the whole movie, I was waiting and waiting for the Hiroshima bombing scene to come on, but it never did," Mimaki said.
"Oppenheimer" does not directly depict what happened on the ground when the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, killing well over 100,000 people, most of them civilians.
Instead, the film focuses on Oppenheimer as an individual and the struggles he faced, both personal and ethical.
Due to the sensitivity of the subject matter, the film was released in Japan more than eight months after it first premiered in the U.S.
Former Hiroshima Mayor Takashi Hiraoka spoke at a preview event for the film in the southwestern city and did not hold back.
"From Hiroshima's standpoint, the horror of nuclear weapons was not sufficiently depicted," he said, according to Japanese media.
"The film was made in a way to validate the conclusion that the atomic bomb was used to save the lives of Americans."
Added lawyer Hiroyuki Shinju, "This movie can serve as the starting point for addressing the legitimacy of the use of nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as humanity's, and Japan's, reflections on nuclear weapons and war."
