Cambridge it was Japanese. The policies for Cambridge and Oxford differ quite a lot though, so I don't know about the conditions with Oxford. I should imagine for medicine though, retake candidates would be an iffy subject at Cambridge too though. That really is too competitive.
I have no mitigating circumstances, I just did crap in some of my subjects.
My offers were:
1st Time:
Cambridge
SOAS
Edinburgh
Oxford Brookes
Southampton Solent (My absolute insurance...)
2nd Time:
SOAS
Edinburgh
Sheffield
Oxford Brookes
UCLan
I received the same offers from SOAS and Edinburgh, unconditional from Oxford Brookes and UCLan, (though I had already attained the required grades), and a slightly lower offer than stated in the prospectus from Sheffield.
Obviously, I only have the perspective of one course out of the thousands of combinations offered throughout the country, but I just can't see how my personal experience can differ that greatly from everyone else's. The universities know that not everybody get's it right the first time, and an extra year shouldn't mean anything to them. You've still achieved the same thing- Why in their eyes wouldn't you be the same as every other applicant who got the same grades as you in your retake year? You've still proven that you can achieve it, and better still you've proven that you are motivated enough to go back to school when all your friends have left, and work through hell to get to the places you've applied.
Though this isn't what universities have said, I was commended by many for being willing to return to school. It's not easy being in a class with people you don't know, and it's especially not easy doing what I did and actually undertake new subjects in less than a year (I had to do History HL in 7 months because I couldn't conceivably improve my Computer Science above a 4.)
Universities see your personal statement. As long as they can see from this that you have taken the upperhand in remedying your situation, I don't think it is in their best interest to reject you. You're older, more mature and have developed an entirely different work ethic to what you had the first time round. They'd be silly not to accept you.
And for reference, this is the simple explanation I used in my PS to explain my retakes:
"The broad IB curriculum encourages the research into individual interests as part of the compulsory Extended Essay. Because I am using my gap year to broaden my IB studies further and develop the complexity and depth of knowledge in my subjects in preparation for the challenges of higher education, I have undertaken two of these."
It's a bit wordy looking back, but probably suffered due to that damn character count x(
Good luck OP. I hope you end up where you want to be at the end of all this