After the nuclear attack of 1945, survivors were left to create a new cuisine from the scarce rations available. Yasmin Vince tries okonomiyaki, the soul food sold by widows out of broken windows.
Explosive. In the world of food, the word is usually a metaphor for a taste profile that packs a punch. But in the case of okonomiyaki, a Japanese pancake, the adjective takes on a new meaning.
On 6 August 1945, the world changed. A nuclear weapon, codenamed Little Boy, was dropped and Japan surrendered.
After the detonation five square miles of the city was destroyed. The destruction left little food for those who had survived.
“After the war, flour, meat, and vegetables were rationed,” says Fumio Tanga, owner of Sho Foo Doh, an okonomiyaki restaurant in London.
Survivors turned to Osaka for inspiration. In 1923 the city had suffered an earthquake that was considered the worst natural disaster the nation had ever seen. The scarcity of food had led to the creation of a savoury pancake, made with wheat flour and cabbage. Faced with a similar set of circumstances, the people of Hiroshima adopted okonomiyaki into their diet.
“There’s been an okonomiyaki shaped hole in my heart that needs filling”
Lorelai Green
Okonomiyaki has remained a staple of the Hiroshima cuisine. It’s something the city’s citizens are incredibly proud of. “The Hiroshima style is infinitely better than the Osaka style,” says Tanga. “The addition of noodles makes it more filling.”
Hiroshima’s pride for the pancake is so great, Tanga warns visitors to never ask for mayonnaise with it, like the Osakans do. Some restaurants ban it and will even kick guests out for asking for the forbidden condiment.
Okonomiyaki, done in the Hiroshima style, is made using a flour and water batter, shredded cabbage, and green onions. The batter and vegetables are grilled in alternating layers, rather than all mixed together like the Osaka style. It’s almost like a filled crepe, except crispier. A fried egg and yakisoba noodles are placed on top, but not cooked with the pancake.

For Lorelai Green, the okonomiyaki was the most memorable part of her trip to Japan in 2015. “It tasted amazing, like a crispy pizza,” she recalls. Green has not had the pancake since returning to the UK. This is because she has not found an eatery in London that offers it. Upon hearing of Tanga’s restaurant, she said, “I will definitely be going there as soon as possible. There’s been an okonomiyaki shaped hole in my heart that needs filling.”
The dish changed the landscape of cooking in Hiroshima. Following the war, a lot of the city’s widows started selling okonomiyaki out of their homes. This meant they could work and look after their children at the same time.
“A bomb tore the soul of their city apart and a humble cabbage pancake put it back together”
JJ Walsh runs guided tours of Hiroshima. She remembers meeting one of the original Hibakusha (survivors) who started her restaurant as a food stall, selling cheap ‘survival food’ to support her family. Her teppan cookplate had dents as it was from the original stall and had been constructed from metal taken off the side of an abandoned ship.
“We have thousands of okonomiyaki shops here now,” says Walsh. “They link back to these entrepreneurial women who helped rebuild the city.”
“There are still a significant number of female okonomiyaki chefs in Hiroshima,” says Tanga. This is quite uncommon in Japan, where men dominate the culinary industry. In Okonomimura, a four-floor building filled with okonomiyaki restaurants, almost half of the restaurants are female-run.
These women refer to okonomiyaki as ‘soul food’. A bomb tore the soul of their city apart and a humble cabbage pancake put it back together.