AFTER rattling nerves in Japan, the Warner Bros. Film Group in the US has made a public apology about the social media activity on its official accounts concerning the ongoing “Barbenheimer” meme.

“Warner Brothers regrets its recent insensitive social media engagement. The studio offers a sincere apology,” the company said in a statement emailed to Variety last week.

The move follows criticism of Warner by members of the public in Japan, the start of an online petition against the studio, and an unusual manoeuver by the Japanese distribution arm of Warner.

Warner Bros. Japan last week posted a statement on its official Japanese-language Barbie Twitter account criticising the studio’s US branch for feeding into the “Barbenheimer” craze on social media.

Responding to one “Barbenheimer” fan art poster, which depicts Margot Robbie’s Barbie sitting on the shoulders of Cillian Murphy’s J. Robert Oppenheimer in front of a fiery atomic mushroom cloud, the Barbie US Twitter account wrote: “It’s going to be a summer to remember.”

“Barbenheimer” refers to the dual summer releases of Universal’s Oppenheimer and Warner Bros.’ Barbie movies, with both releasing on July 21 in North America and international territories.

However, in Japan, the World War II film has not been released.

While the film debates the issue of whether the bombings ultimately saved lives and brought international peace, the latest skirmish underlines the continuing sensitivity of the nuclear weapons debate in Japan.

By some estimates, as many as 250,000 people were killed by the two atomic bombs dropped by the US on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

The hashtag “#NoBarbenheimer” has been trending in Japan, with the movie mash-up craze drawing criticism from the country for making light of the mass destruction caused by the atomic bombs.