Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib’s unfinished autobiography translated into Japanese

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s unfinished autobiography has been translated into Japanese.

The foreign ministry said Japan’s prestigious publishing house ‘The Ashahi Shoten’ published the book translated by Kazuhiro Watanabe, chief programme director of the Japan’s public broadcaster NHK’s Bangla section.
 
Watanabe is in Dhaka to hand over this 600-page Japanese version to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at a ceremony on Sunday.
 
The foreign ministry described the translator as a “genuine friend” of Bangladesh, who recently constituted Japan-Bangladesh Society in Tokyo.
 
Bangladesh’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s personal diary hit the stands as a book in 2012 in both Bangla ‘Ausamapta Atmajiboni’ and English ‘The Unfinished Memoirs’.
 
Bangabandhu penned this during his time in jail from 1967-69.
 
He described the context of writing it, and his lineage, birth and childhood, days in school and college, and his social and political involvements.
 
This great leader also chronicled the historical events he experienced standing in the forefront – famine, communal riots in Kolkata and Bihar, partition, Pakistan central government's discriminatory attitude and the Agartala conspiracy, among others.
 
The foreign ministry said this book in Japanese would provide “an opportunity to the Japanese people to understand the Bangalee people through the life and thoughts of Bangabandhu, the greatest Bangalee of all time”.
 
“This will also act as a bridge between the peoples of Bangladesh and Japan and eventually enhance understanding and friendship,” it said in a statement.
 
Translator Watanabe earlier published ‘Amar Bangladesh’, Bangla translation from the Japanese original ‘Bangguradeshu tono Deai’ by late Takashi Hayakawa, and ‘Rokto O Kada’ 1971, another Bangla translation from the Japanese original ‘Chi to Doro to’, by Tadamasa Fukiura.
 
He works closely with Bangladesh Embassy in Japan to promote Bangla language and Bangladesh in Japan.
 
Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali and Bangladesh Ambassador to Japan Masud Bin Momen are expected to be present at the handing over ceremony at the prime minister’s office.