Doctor Tim - The Mystery of the Man from Hiroshima

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Harold’s Old Time Radio

Episode: Doctor Tim – The Mystery of the Man from Hiroshima
Host: Harold’s Old Time Radio
Date: May 9, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode features a classic radio drama following Dr. Tim, a physician and amateur detective, as he becomes entangled in a perplexing mystery involving spoiled X-ray films, a humble handyman named Mr. Tagawa, and a chilling legacy of radiation exposure dating back to Hiroshima. The story blends suspense with educational moments about atomic science and a sensitive reflection on the aftermath of the atomic bomb, all with the distinctive tone and style of Golden Age radio drama.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Laboratory Spring Cleaning and a Critical Task

• Set-up: Dr. Tim, with his young helpers Sandy and Jill, are cleaning his chaotic laboratory and preparing X-ray films needed for an upcoming murder trial.
• Challenge: The group enlists the help of Mr. Tagawa, a polite and diligent worker, to paint and clean. Dr. Tim forgets where he left the crucial X-ray film amid the clutter.

2. Spoiled X-ray Films and the First Suspicion

• Incident: Upon developing the X-rays, Dr. Tim and his helpers discover that the images are ruined—fogged as if exposed to light.
  • Dr. Tim: "They look as if they'd been light struck. I guess. Well, I must have been careless or else the X-ray machine is out of order." (03:21)
• Confusion: Subsequent X-rays, taken after rearranging, are fine. But soon another batch becomes fogged, leaving everyone puzzled.

3. Understanding Radiation and Its Effects

• Scientific Explanation:
  • Dr. Tim explains that in addition to light, radioactive materials like radium can spoil film. He discusses how these materials are used in medicine (thyroid studies, cancer treatment) but are dangerous if mishandled.
    • Dr. Tim: "Radium gives off light… invisible to us, but it’s there all right. So do other atomic products. Things they're making at places like Oak Ridge." (05:22)
    • Jill: "The atom bomb factory." (06:16)
• Historical Context: References the contamination in clock factories and radium poisoning.

4. The Search for a Radioactive Source

• Investigation:
  • The possibility of contaminated paint is dismissed since the issue appeared before painting began.
  • Dr. Tim borrows a Geiger counter from the university, checking the laboratory for radiation.
  • "On Sunday, we spent three hours going over the laboratory for traces of radiation…there were none, except when I showed Sandy and Jill how the Geiger counter worked." (08:34–09:15)
• Stalemate: With all tests negative, Dr. Tim concludes it must have been a bad batch of film.

5. Breakthrough: The Human Factor

• A New Lead:
  • Jill asks if people can be radioactive:
    • Jill: "Well, you said people could be radioactive too. Wouldn't they spoil the film?" (09:32)
  • Dr. Tim recalls both film spoiling incidents involved Mr. Tagawa touching or holding the film boxes.

6. The Truth About Mr. Tagawa

• Confrontation:
  • Dr. Tim tests Mr. Tagawa’s clothes with the Geiger counter:
    • Dr. Tim: "Because if you do have radium poisoning, I won't have to tell you what it means." (10:30)
  • Mr. Tagawa admits to long-term illness and reveals a harrowing past:
    • He was a Japanese-American intelligence officer, captured and sent to Hiroshima after the bomb, forced to help in medical investigations.
    • Mr. Tagawa: "When I prisoner… I take to Hiroshima. …The Japanese they know I am laboratory technician. I still a prisoner, but I work. I work with all doctors to find out what have happened. What can be done for all those people." (11:23–11:45)
  • His old clothes, worn in Hiroshima and stored since, are still radioactive—the cause of the spoiled films.

7. Reflection and Emotional Impact

• Sad Irony:
  • Mr. Tagawa reflects on the tragic contrast between the peaceful uses of atomic science and its horrors:
    • Mr. Tagawa: "It is very sad that something so good… can also be so bad. I mean the bomb." (12:02)
• Hope for the Future:
  • Dr. Tim urges the next generation (his young helpers) to consider how atomic power might be used for good or evil:
    • Dr. Tim: "Maybe that’s up to you. What you want to do with this power we own—good or evil. Yes, you will be the ones." (12:54)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Prejudice and History:
  • Mr. Tagawa: "I have not been well. And also I have run into much prejudice because of my unfortunate nationality." (02:17)
• On Scientific Progress:
  • Dr. Tim: "Atomic scientists are working for medicine too… Iodine… made radioactive, to study what actually happens to it in the body." (05:41–06:16)
• Finger-pointing at Science’s Double-Edged Sword:
  • Mr. Tagawa: "It is very sad. The little tracer bullets of your doctors, the radium for the cancer, the marvelous picture of the inside of the body… It also be so bad. I mean the bomb." (12:02)
• Somber Closing:
  • Dr. Tim: "We close my case book on the mystery of the man from Hiroshima… What you want to do with this power we own—good or evil. Yes, you will be the ones." (13:36)

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• [00:32] Introduction to the Mystery – Dr. Tim’s spring cleaning and need for X-ray films
• [03:17] Discovery of spoiled X-rays
• [05:22] Explanation of atomic radiation and its uses in medicine
• [08:10] The Geiger counter idea emerges
• [09:19] Negative results from radioactive search in laboratory
• [09:32] Jill suggests people can be radioactive — the breakthrough
• [10:21] Mr. Tagawa is tested for radioactivity
• [11:23–11:45] Mr. Tagawa’s Hiroshima story and confession
• [12:02] Reflection on science’s duality
• [13:11] Mr. Tagawa’s farewell
• [13:36] Dr. Tim’s closing thoughts

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Flow & Tone

• The episode’s tone is warm but suspenseful, blending classic radio detective tropes with real science and postwar reflection.
• Dialogue is accessible, gently educational, and builds steadily to a poignant, bittersweet revelation.

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Summary

This episode of "Harold’s Old Time Radio" delivers a poignant blend of mystery and history, capturing the intrigue of early detective radio while weaving in a powerful lesson about the legacy of the atomic age. The story’s emotional core—the fate of Mr. Tagawa, a Hiroshima survivor and unwilling radioactive carrier—serves both as a gripping plot twist and a somber comment on the responsibilities of science and the long shadow of war.

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Transcript

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[Dr. Tim]

This is Dr. Tim, detective to bring you by transcription the Mystery of the man from Hiroshima. Even doctors have to do their spring house cleaning once a year, and on this particular day, my laboratory looked as if a cyclone had hit it. I'd enlisted the aid of Sandy and Jill, my two best friends and helpers, and hired a man to wash the walls and woodwork and do some painting. It wasn't until we were in the middle of the job that I remembered that I'd promised to get those X ray pictures out by the next day. They're going to be pretty important in a murder trial at which I was testifying, and my good friend the district attorney wanted to go over the pictures with me at the earliest moment. Ordinarily, I would have developed them at once, but an emergency case prevented me. As I was scrambling in the litter of house cleaning, trying to remember where I'd put the film, Mr. Tagawa, the man who was helping us stop to light a cigarette.

[Jill]

Did you lose something, Dr. Tim?

[Dr. Tim]

Yeah. You wouldn't remember where you put that package of exposed X ray film, would you? I think I know where it is. Good. Jill, if you'd like to take a few minutes off from your drudgery and help me in the darkroom, the job's yours.

[Jill]

Sure. Are we going to develop my X ray pictures?

[Dr. Tim]

If I can find them in this confounded mess. Are these the ones you wanted? Let's see. Sandy. No, no. This is a new package. Hasn't been opened.

[Mr. Tagawa]

I think this is perhaps what you look for, Doctor. I have, with much carelessness, put my coat on top of it when I start to work.

[Dr. Tim]

Oh, thanks, Mr. Tagawa. You know, most people wouldn't even know what a package of X ray film looked like before in Japan.

[Mr. Tagawa]

I have done many tasks in scientific laboratory.

[Dr. Tim]

Then. Great Scott, man. Surely you don't have to do this sort of work for a living. Heck, no. I'll bet Dr. Tim could get you a job.

[Mr. Tagawa]

I am very grateful, but I have not been well. And also I have run into Much prejudice because of my unfortunate nationality.

[Jill]

But he was. Mr. Togawa, I thought you were an American soldier in the war.

[Mr. Tagawa]

That is quite correct, Ms. Jill. I was an American intelligence officer and was captured as a prisoner by the Japanese. I served 18 months as prisoner in Japan. You will excuse, please. I have about finished cleaning wall and must buy paint to start on woodwork tomorrow.

[Dr. Tim]

Yes. Taking Jill with me, I waved goodbye to Mr. Tagawa and disappeared into the dark room, not even realizing that clutched in my hand in a thin cardboard box was the beginning of one of the most baffling mysteries in my career as doctor and detective. About an hour later, Sandy, Jill and I stood dumbfounded before a rack on my laboratory bench upon which were spread the developed X ray pictures.

[Jill]

There's absolutely nothing wrong do you suppose could have happened?

[Dr. Tim]

I would be dog conned. They look as if they'd been light struck. I guess. Well, I must have been careless or else the X ray machine is out of order.

[Jill]

But it couldn't be, Dr. Tim, don't you remember their pictures we took yesterday after these? They were okay.

[Dr. Tim]

I'd show if I'd forgotten they were. That's a mystery to me. What'll you have to do? Take him over? I guess I'd better get the DA on the phone. Boy, that sure beats everything. By working most of the night, I managed to get the X rays taken again. And I developed about half of them before I had to give up and go to sleep. I was awakened early the next morning by the arrival of Mr. Tagawa, who started laying out his painting equipment. And by the entrance of Sandy and Jill, ready to start the day's work. I dressed quickly, enjoyed it.

[Jill]

What about the new set of pictures? Were they okay?

[Dr. Tim]

They were, Jill. At least the ones I developed last night. I wonder what could have happened. Beats me, Sandy. We'll soon know about the rest. Now, where did I put?

[Jill]

Right here, Dr. Tim. Shall I take him to the dark room?

[Dr. Tim]

No, just hang on a minute.

[Mr. Tagawa]

Colorful wood, Doctor.

[Dr. Tim]

Oh, yeah, yeah, it looks okay to me.

[Mr. Tagawa]

I make darker or lighter you like?

[Dr. Tim]

Oh, I like that, Mr. Tagala. Looks well to me.

[Mr. Tagawa]

Here, let me hold wood sample against light color. You'll give me a box of film a minute? Yes, very nice, I think.

[Dr. Tim]

He held the box against his chest and stepped back for us to see. Well, when I walked out of the dark room a short time later, I tried to keep from swearing where the kids could hear me. The last half of those pictures were fogged again. Completely ruined as if by light. As Sandy, Jill And I sat over breakfast at the drugstore in the corner. There were a puzzled crew.

[Jill]

You don't suppose I could have done something wrong, do you?

[Dr. Tim]

No, of course not. I was working in there with you all the time, Jim. Well, you didn't expose him to any light. And you checked the X ray machine.

[Jill]

Is there anything besides light that would spoil it?

[Dr. Tim]

No. Well, there's nothing that could possibly be in the laboratory.

[Jill]

What do you mean?

[Dr. Tim]

Of course, film can be spoiled if it's exposed to radium. But I've never had radium or any radium product in the lab. I don't get it about radium. I mean. Well, radium gives off light, Sandy. Invisible light. I mean, it's invisible to us, but it's there all right. So do other atomic products. Things they're making at places like Oak Ridge.

[Jill]

The atom bomb factory.

[Dr. Tim]

It's much more than that, Joan. Atomic scientists are working for medicine, too. You know how radium is used in stopping the growth of cancer in the human body? Sure. Well, certain other chemicals are made radioactive, too. They're used just like tracer bullets from a machine gun. How? Well, take iodine, for instance. There's a certain important gland in the body that's called the thyroid gland. Well, iodine taken into the body sooner or later goes to the thyroid. So doctors these days are using iodine, which has been made radioactive, to study what actually happens to it in the body, especially in the thyroid gland.

[Jill]

Well, I get it. Because radium products give off that invisible light while you can take X ray pictures of the iodine at work in the thyroid.

[Dr. Tim]

Exactly. Doesn't radium kill you? Too much does, Sandy. And too much means a piece less than the size of a grain of salt. But doctors use it for brief periods, just like X ray, to cure people. Now, let's get back to those spoiled pictures. Hey, you sure you haven't got some of that stuff around in the lab

[Jill]

and you've forgotten about it?

[Dr. Tim]

Now, look, kids. Well, it was a thought. And it was a thought. Not that I'd had any radioactive material around for. It's the most dangerous stuff in the world when handled carelessly. But I remembered a case or two I'd read about not so long ago. Thousands of rolls of unused film had been spoiled because the containers they came in had been made of contaminated material. That's a word scientists used to describe any substance which has been exposed to the deadly rays of atomic products. And there was the famous case years ago of the workers in a clock factory which manufactured those Clocks and watches with luminous dials that glow in the dark. Because they moistened the tiny brushes with their tongues, some of them died of radium poisoning. So it wasn't so far fetched after all that something in that laboratory might be radioactive enough to spoil the X ray film. Meantime, I had to take half those pictures over again. I sighed and started back to work. Mr. Tagawa had gone when we got back, as it was Saturday and he worked only half a day. Wearily, I called my patient back and retook the pictures. And this time they were all right. As sharp and clean and unfogged as you could ask. For here was a mystery with a vengeance. It was Jill who made a bright suggestion as we finished.

[Jill]

Dr. Tim, isn't there some way you can tell us? Something's here that shouldn't be like radium or something?

[Dr. Tim]

Well, yes, there is. We could use a Geiger counter. Sure, I've read about those. They used them in the atom bomb test. They go beep, beep, beep if there's anything around that's radioactive.

[Jill]

What you said about the paint in the clock factory. Maybe Mr. Tagawa's paint got radioactive.

[Dr. Tim]

It's not likely, but no, no, that wouldn't work.

[Jill]

Got those first films bow before he even bought the paint.

[Dr. Tim]

Oh, gosh. Why don't we get one of those Geiger counters? Sandy, I believe you have the answer. I'll call the physics laboratory out at the university and we'll go to work. I don't think we'll find anything, but it's worth a try. On Sunday, we spent three hours going over the laboratory for traces of radiation. There were none, except when I showed Sandy and Jill how the Geiger counter worked. I turned on my X ray and pointed the machine toward it. The counter began to click away like mad. Well, I'll be darned.

[Jill]

I get it. The faster the clicks, the more dangerous the radiation, huh?

[Dr. Tim]

Yes, but there's not a trace of anything in the whole room that could have caused those films to be exposed. Just a bad batch, I guess. Looks that way.

[Jill]

I'm left. Oh, but that's silly.

[Dr. Tim]

What's that, Jo?

[Jill]

Well, well, you said people could be radioactive too. Wouldn't they spoil the film?

[Dr. Tim]

My jaw dropped open as I had a sudden thought as clear as day. Now hold on, I told myself. Let me think. My handyman and painter had given me the box with the first spoiled films himself after his coat had lain on them. Yes, I was right. When I took the pictures over, I developed half of them. That Night, no one but myself had touched them. But the next morning, the paint sample. Takawa held a strip of wood in the box that held the remainder of the film against his clothes. The idea was fantastic. I was jolted out of my reverie by someone at the door.

[Jill]

I'll see who it is.

[Mr. Tagawa]

I hope I not bother. I like to see if paint dry. Okay.

[Dr. Tim]

Mr. Tagawa, would you help us with an experiment?

[Mr. Tagawa]

I glad give assistance.

[Dr. Tim]

Sandy, will you hand me the Geiger counter? Thanks.

[Mr. Tagawa]

Ah, that is equipment I'm much familiar with.

[Dr. Tim]

I'm glad of that, Mr. Tagawa. Because if you do have radium poisoning, I won't have to tell you what it means.

[Jill]

Gosh, you don't mean it. What Mr. Tagawa?

[Dr. Tim]

Not Mr. Tagawa. His clothes. But if his clothes are contaminated, there's a chance that he too might.

[Mr. Tagawa]

I. I'm much afraid of that doctor. For a long time. I not feel well. Look pale. How did you guess?

[Dr. Tim]

The film you held against your coat. It was spoiled.

[Mr. Tagawa]

I'm sorry. Please.

[Dr. Tim]

Good Lord, man. You've nothing to be sorry for. I only wish that we. We doctors could.

[Mr. Tagawa]

I understand. No cure. That's what I work on in Japan. I see what happened to so many. It's very funny that I too should have.

[Jill]

What is he saying?

[Mr. Tagawa]

When I prisoner, Miss Ichil, I take to Hiroshima.

[Dr. Tim]

Hiroshima? Holy gee. When a bomb was dropped.

[Mr. Tagawa]

No, I said after. The Japanese they know I am laboratory technician. I still a prisoner, but I work. I work with all doctors to find out what have happened. What can be done for all those people.

[Dr. Tim]

Naturally, you handled a lot of contaminated material.

[Mr. Tagawa]

Yes, And I think we going to die. How you know this, doctor?

[Dr. Tim]

Well, it takes months, sometimes years for the effects to show up. But your clothes gave me the clue. You wore them at that time?

[Mr. Tagawa]

Yes. These old clothes been in my foot locker. You know, the army trunk. Since I come back from Japan till few days ago. I very sad that something so good. The little tracer bullets of your doctors, the radium for the cancer, the marvelous picture of the inside of the body. Are very sad. It also be so bad. I mean the bomb.

[Dr. Tim]

Well, gee, it won't always be that way.

[Mr. Tagawa]

You test me now, doctor.

[Dr. Tim]

Yes. Breathe out now. Silently. I held the counter so he breathed upon it. There were a few faint clicks.

[Jill]

Oh, Dr. Kim, can't you do something for Mr. Tagawa? Anything? Oh, it isn't fair.

[Dr. Tim]

No, Jill. Not a thing as yet. By the time you and Sandy are grown up. Maybe that's up to you. What you want to do with this power we own good or evil. Yes, you will be the ones.

[Mr. Tagawa]

I think I go now. Yes, this is great shock. Although I suspect before I take the paint tomorrow many happy landings.

[Dr. Tim]

And so we close my case book on the mystery of the man from Hiroshima, the last program of this first series. This is Dr. Tim Detective saying so long for now. The series was written and directed by Jack Weir Lewis and produced and transcribed by the Monarch Program Library Incorporated. Sam.

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