Barbie’s Japanese distributor apologises after Barbenheimer memes criticism

The Barbie and Oppenheimer openings sparked a slew of memes combining the two films (Chris Pizzello/AP/PA)

The Japanese distributor of the Warner Bros movie Barbie has apologised for its US 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 minimising the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.