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‘Oppenheimer’ Finally Premieres in Japan to Mixed Reactions, High Emotions

TOKYO — Oppenheimer finally premiered Friday in the nation where two cities were obliterated 79 years ago by the nuclear weapons invented by the American scientist who was the subject of the Oscar-winning film. Japanese filmgoers’ reactions understandably were mixed and highly emotional.

Toshiyuki Mimaki, who survived the bombing of Hiroshima when he was 3, said he has been fascinated by the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, often called “the father of the atomic bomb” for leading 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 said, sadness in his voice, in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

He is now chairperson of a group of bomb victims called the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organization and he 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, turning some 100,000 people instantly into ashes, and killed thousands more in the days that followed, mostly civilians.

The film instead focuses on Oppenheimer as a person and his internal conflicts.

The film’s release in Japan, more than eight months after it opened in the U.S., had been watched with trepidation because of the sensitivity of the subject matter.

Former Hiroshima Mayor Takashi Hiraoka, who spoke at a preview event for the film in the southwestern city, was more critical of what was omitted.

“From Hiroshima’s standpoint, the horror of nuclear weapons was not sufficiently depicted,” he was quoted as saying by 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.”

Some moviegoers offered praise. One man emerging from a Tokyo theater Friday said the movie was great, stressing that the topic was of great interest to Japanese, although emotionally volatile as well. Another said he got choked up over the film’s scenes depicting Oppenheimer’s inner turmoil. Neither man would give his name to an Associated Press journalist.

In a sign of the historical controversy, a backlash flared last year over the “Barbenheimer” marketing phenomenon that merged pink-and-fun Barbie with seriously intense Oppenheimer. Warner Bros. Japan, which distributed Barbie in the country, apologized after some memes depicted the Mattel doll with atomic blast imagery.

Kazuhiro Maeshima, professor at Sophia University, who specializes in U.S. politics, called the film an expression of “an American conscience.”

Those who expect an anti-war movie may be disappointed. But the telling of Oppenheimer’s story in a Hollywood blockbuster would have been unthinkable several decades ago, when justification of nuclear weapons dominated American sentiments, Maeshima said.

“The work shows an America that has changed dramatically,” he said in a telephone interview.

Others suggested the world might be ready for a Japanese response to that story.

Takashi Yamazaki, director of Godzilla Minus One, which won the Oscar for visual effects and is a powerful statement on nuclear catastrophe in its own way, suggested he might be the man for that job.

“I feel there needs to an answer from Japan to Oppenheimer. Someday, I would like to make that movie,” he said in an online dialogue with Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan.

Nolan heartily agreed.

Hiroyuki Shinju, a lawyer, noted Japan and Germany also carried out wartime atrocities, even as the nuclear threat grows around the world. Historians say Japan was also working on nuclear weapons during World War II and would have almost certainly used them against other nations, Shinju said.

“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,” he wrote in his commentary on Oppenheimer published by the Tokyo Bar Association. 

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Latin America, Caribbean Set for Record Dengue Season

WASHINGTON — Latin America and the Caribbean should prepare for their worst dengue season ever, as global warming and the El Niño climate phenomenon fuel the mosquito-borne epidemic, a U.N. health agency warned Thursday.

In less than three months in 2024, regional health authorities have already tallied more than 3.5 million cases and a thousand deaths from the virus, which is spread by the bite of an infected mosquito.

“Probably this will be the worst dengue season [in the region],” said Jarbas Barbosa, director of the Pan American Health Organization.

The 3.5 million cases recorded so far are three times more than the number of infections at this point in 2023, a record year that saw 4.5 million cases, Barbosa said.

Dengue, which can cause hemorrhagic fever, is common in hotter countries and occurs mainly in urban and semi-urban areas.

It infects an estimated 100 million to 400 million people yearly, though most cases are mild or asymptomatic, according to the World Health Organization.

The increase in the number of infections is seen in all countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, but especially in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, which represent 92% of all cases and 87% of deaths. 

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Japan Moon Probe Survives Second Lunar Night

TOKYO — Japan’s unmanned moon lander woke up after surviving a second frigid, two-week lunar night and transmitted new images back to Earth, the country’s space agency said Thursday.

“We received a response from SLIM last night and confirmed that SLIM had successfully completed its second overnight,” the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said in a post on the official X account for its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) probe.

“Since the sun was still high in the sky last night and the equipment was still hot, we recorded images of the usual scenery with the navigational camera, among other activities, for a short period of time,” it added.

A black-and-white photo of the rocky surface of a crater accompanied the post on X, formerly Twitter.

The SLIM lander touched down in January at a wonky angle that left its solar panels facing the wrong way.

Around three hours after the landing — which made Japan only the fifth nation to touch down on the moon — JAXA decided to switch SLIM off with 12% power remaining to allow for a possible resumption later on.

As the sun’s angle shifted, the probe came back to life in late January for two days and carried out scientific observations of a crater with a high-spec camera.

But the spacecraft was not designed for the freezing, fortnight-long lunar nights, when the temperature plunges to minus 133 degrees Celsius.

So space agency scientists had cause for celebration when it was successfully revived in late February after its first lunar night.

JAXA has dubbed SLIM the “Moon Sniper” for its precision landing technology.

The aim of the mission is to examine a part of the moon’s mantle — the usually deep inner layer beneath its crust — that is believed to be accessible.

Thursday’s news came after an uncrewed American lander called Odysseus — the first private spaceship to successfully land on the moon — was unable to wake up, its manufacturer said on Saturday, even after its solar panels were projected to receive enough sunlight to turn on its radio. 

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Finalists Named for First Women’s Nonfiction Prize

LONDON — Books about the dizzying impact of the internet and artificial intelligence are among finalists for a new book prize that aims to help fix the gender imbalance in nonfiction publishing.

The shortlisted six books for the inaugural Women’s Prize for Nonfiction, announced on Wednesday, include Canadian author-activist Naomi Klein’s “Doppleganger,” a plunge into online misinformation, and British journalist Madhumita Murgia’s “Code-Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI.”

The 30,000 pound ($38,000) award is a sister to the 29-year-old Women’s Prize for Fiction and is open to female English-language writers from any country in any nonfiction genre.

The finalists also include autobiographical works — poet Safiya Sinclair’s “How to Say Babylon: A Jamaican Memoir” and British art critic Laura Cumming’s “Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death.”

Rounding out the list are British author Noreen Masud’s travelogue-memoir “A Flat Place,” and Harvard history professor Tiya Miles’ “All That She Carried,” a history of American enslavement told through one Black family’s keepsake.

British historian Suzannah Lipscomb, who is chairing the judging panel, said that “the readers of these books will never see the world — be it through art, history, landscape, politics, religion or technology — the same again.”

The winners of both nonfiction and fiction prizes will be announced at a ceremony in London on June 13.

The prize was set up in response to a gender imbalance in the book world, where men buy more nonfiction than women — and write more prize-wining nonfiction books.

The company Nielsen Book Research found in 2019 that while women bought 59% of all the books sold in the United Kingdom, men accounted for just over half of adult nonfiction purchases.

Prize organizers say that in 2022, only 26.5% of nonfiction books reviewed in Britain’s newspapers were by women, and male writers dominated established nonfiction writing prizes.

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Chinese Leader to Dutch PM: Restricting Technology Access Won’t Stop China’s Advance

BEIJING — Chinese leader Xi Jinping told visiting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Wednesday that attempts to restrict China’s access to technology will not stop the country’s advance. 

The Netherlands imposed export licensing requirements in 2023 on the sale of machinery that can make advanced processor chips. The move came after the United States blocked Chinese access to advanced chips and the equipment to make them, citing security concerns, and urged its allies to follow suit. 

An online report from state broadcaster CCTV did not mention the chip machinery, but quoted Xi as saying that the creation of scientific and technological barriers and the fragmentation of the industrial and supply chains will lead to division and confrontation. 

“The Chinese people also have the right to legitimate development, and no force can stop the pace of China’s scientific and technological development and progress,” Xi said, according to CCTV. 

Dutch company ASML is the world’s only producer of machines that use extreme ultraviolet lithography to make advanced semiconductors. In 2023, China became ASML’s second-largest market, accounting for 29% of its revenue as Chinese companies bought up equipment before the licensing requirement took effect. 

 

Rutte, speaking to journalists after his meeting, declined to go into specifics of the talks. 

“What I can tell you is that … when we have to take measures, that they are never aimed at one country specifically, that we always try to make sure that the impact is limited, is not impacting the supply chain, and therefore is not impacting the overall economic relationship,” he said. 

The Dutch leader, who was accompanied by Trade Minister Geoffrey van Leeuwen on the trip, said the top issue for him in their meetings with Xi and Chinese Premier Li Qiang was the war in Ukraine. 

China has taken a neutral position on the war, providing Russia with diplomatic cover and economic support through trade. That stance has angered and frustrated much of Europe, which sees Russia as the aggressor and Ukraine as the victim. 

Rutte said it’s important for China to understand that “this is a direct security threat for us, because if Russia will be successful in Ukraine, it will be a threat to the whole of Europe. It will not end with Ukraine.” 

He added that he had asked China’s leaders “to put their considerable weight — and they can do that as far as I’m concerned in a very discreet way — but as much as possible on Russia to influence the course of events.” 

ASML, the Netherlands’ largest company, recently threatened to leave the country over anti-immigration policies that may impact the company’s ability to hire talent, leaving government officials scrambling to ensure that the firm does not leave. 

Van Leeuwen said this week in an interview with The FD, a Dutch business newspaper, that protecting the interests of ASML is a top priority but acknowledged that national security comes before economic interests. 

Beijing has repeatedly accused the U.S. of trying to hold back China’s economic development by restricting access to technology. In response, Xi has launched a campaign to develop home-grown chips and other high-tech products. 

“China always opposes the U.S. overstretching the concept of national security and making various excuses to coerce other countries into imposing a technological blockade against China,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said in January. 

Rutte said that NATO and its growing ties with Asia did not come up at Wednesday’s talks. He is a leading candidate to be the next head of the alliance, which China has criticized for provoking regional tensions and making diplomatic forays into the Asia-Pacific region.

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Prosecutor Seeks 2-1/2-Year Jail Term for Spain’s Ex-Soccer Chief Rubiales Over Kiss

MADRID — A prosecutor at Spain’s High Court is seeking a prison sentence of 2-1/2 years for former soccer federation chief Luis Rubiales over his unsolicited kiss on player Jenni Hermoso, a court document seen by Reuters on Wednesday showed.

Prosecutor Marta Durantez charged Rubiales with one count of sexual assault and one of coercion for his alleged actions in the aftermath of the kiss, offenses carrying jail terms of one year and one-and-a-half years, respectively.

Rubiales, 46, unleashed a furor when he grabbed Hermoso and kissed her on the lips on Aug. 20 of last year during the awards ceremony after Spain’s victory in the women’s World Cup in Sydney.  

Hermoso and her teammates said the kiss was unwanted and demeaning, but Rubiales argued it was consensual and denied any wrongdoing.  

The prosecutor also accused the former coach of the women’s national team, Jorge Vilda, the team’s current sporting director, Albert Luque, and the federation’s head of marketing, Ruben Rivera, of coercing Hermoso into saying the kiss was consensual.

All three have denied wrongdoing when they appeared before the court.

Durantez seeks to have Rubiales pay $54,080 in damages to Hermoso, and another $54,080 jointly paid by Rubiales, Vilda, Luque and Rivera.

If the court were to convict Rubiales and impose the sentencing sought by the prosecutor he would not necessarily have to go to prison. Spain’s criminal code allows judges to “exceptionally” suspend the execution of the sentence if – as in this case – none of the sentences imposed individually exceeds two years.

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Gaza Hospital Patients in Jerusalem Face Uncertainty

Israel has ordered Palestinian hospital patients back to the Gaza Strip after they’re done with treatment in East Jerusalem medical facilities. As Linda Gradstein reports from East Jerusalem, the order has sparked an outcry from human rights groups, and the Israeli Supreme Court has put their transfer on hold.

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