09/08/2026
81 years ago today, on August 9, 1945, the atomic bomb devastated Nagasaki, taking tens of thousands of lives.
Just 1.8 km from the epicentre stood First Urakami Hospital. Dr Tatsuichiro Akizuki was just 29 years old when the bomb fell. Despite the devastation surrounding them, he and his colleagues continued treating the injured.
The hospital had stores of brown rice, miso and wakame seaweed. Dr Akizuki fed his staff and patients brown rice and wakame miso soup, believing that this simple, traditional food would help sustain them through the terrible conditions they faced.
He later observed that the staff working alongside him did not develop what became known as “atomic bomb sickness”, and became convinced that their daily diet may have played a part.
For the rest of his life, Dr Akizuki explored the relationship between food and health and advocated having a bowl of wakame miso soup every morning.
Decades later, researchers at Hiroshima University investigated whether there might be scientific grounds for his observation.
In animal studies, they found that mice fed miso before radiation exposure had greater survival of intestinal crypt cells — cells essential for regenerating the intestinal lining. Interestingly, longer-fermented miso showed a greater protective effect, suggesting that substances produced during fermentation may play an important role.
The research does not establish that miso can protect people from radiation. But it provides a fascinating scientific connection to an observation made amid the unimaginable circumstances of Nagasaki in 1945.
Today, we remember Dr Akizuki, the medical staff who continued caring for others amongst the devastation, and above all, the many lives lost and forever changed on August 9, 1945.
May their stories never be forgotten.
#秋月辰一郎
