Cross-cultural communication （142）　

142) The Qualities of a Top Newspaper Columnist
In the summer of 2023, the American film “Oppenheimer” caused quite a stir in Japan. However, the focus of this article is not on the merits of the film itself. This is because, as of October 2023, the film has not yet been released in Japan, making it impossible to judge its quality. In fact, around the same time as the release of “Oppenheimer” in the U.S., a composite photo of the lead actress of “Barbie” was posted online, featuring a mushroom cloud reminiscent of the atomic bomb, sparking a wave of backlash from Japan. As a result, the film “Oppenheimer,” which portrays J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb dropped on Japan and the head of the Manhattan Project, also had its release in Japan put on hold.

On August 19, 2023, the column “Shunju, meaning history in Japanese” on the front page of the Nikkei newspaper featured a discussion about the film “Oppenheimer.” The columnist for that column apparently had the opportunity to watch the film in the United States. As a result, he reportedly watched the three-hour epic “completely engrossed” from start to finish. He went on to say, “I was surprised to learn that Oppenheimer was labeled a spy after the war and removed from public office.” I fully agree with their feeling of being “completely engrossed.” Although I had not yet had the opportunity to watch the film at the time of writing this blog, I thought it was only natural to feel that way, given that it is a major production based on historical facts. However, I have some reservations about the columnist's lack of knowledge regarding Oppenheimer's post-war misfortunes. This is because, as I wrote in my cross-cultural blog (141) “The High-Growth Era in the United States,” I read Halberstam's “The Fifties” over a decade ago and have a decent understanding of Oppenheimer's struggles over the atomic bombings and the McCarthyism that exploited those struggles to thoroughly persecute him. Additionally, such basic facts should be common knowledge among educated Americans in their 60s or older today.

Therefore, I find it overly naive for a columnist of the Nikkei Morning Edition, who is one of Japan's leading intellectuals, to honestly admit that he was unaware of the hidden history of a prominent figure like Oppenheimer. Even if he truly did not know, a simple online search before writing would have revealed these common facts. It would have been better to write something like, “I vaguely knew about such background circumstances, but I did not know the details to this extent.” In today's world, AI can translate Japanese to English in an instant with remarkable accuracy. If English-speaking audiences perceive the quality of a Japanese newspaper's columnists to be this low, it might, albeit exaggeratedly, harm Japan's national interests.

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