AKIGUCHI Akemi

Akemi was a student at Nagasaki Medical College, training to become a doctor. He is thought to have been attending class at the time of the nuclear bombing. Although Akemi’s father searched for him after the bombing, he was never able to find a trace of his son.

Prior to his death, Akemi had kept a diary. In July 1945, he recorded a comment from a teacher that had touched him: “Even if the war prevents us from enjoying normal amusements, we can still have the pleasure of indulging in intellectual thought.”

On 7 August, two days before the bombing of Nagasaki, he wrote of his impressions reading Dostoevsky: “The greatest treasure of man is a heart of love. Without love, wealth is nothing.” The next day, his diary mentioned “enormous casualties” from a “new type of bomb” that had been dropped on Hiroshima.

Akemi’s older brother survived the bombing of Nagasaki. He cherished Akemi’s diary for the rest of his life, and hoped many people would remember his brother through reading it. Even when hospitalised in his later years, he kept his little brother’s diary by his side.