A Bangladeshi peace activist has translated Takashi Nagai's 1949 best seller "Nagasaki no Kane" ("The Bells of Nagasaki") into Bengali and plans to donate the work to high schools, universities and libraries in his country.
Mahbubur Rahman, 36, said Thursday he came to know Nagai's work through research on A-bomb victims' suffering.
The book is the personal chronicle of a physician suffering from leukemia who treated survivors of the Aug. 9, 1945, atomic bombing of Nagasaki, even though he had also been exposed to the radiation.
Rahman, a lawyer, said at the Nagasaki Municipal Government office that he found an English edition of "Nagasaki no Kane" at the Japanese Embassy in Dacca in 1997 and was deeply moved by Nagai's story and his yearning for peace.
Born in 1908, Nagai became a hero in Japan after the publication of "Nagasaki no Kane." the book was turned into a movie, and a song composed in his memory with the same title became immensely popular. Nagai died in 1951.
The Bengali edition of "Nagasaki no Kane" is being published amid heightened fears about nuclear war amid the tensions between India and Pakistan, both atomic powers.
Rahman, who received a 500,000 yen donation from the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to cover his publishing costs, said he wants to let his fellow Bangladeshis know about the horrors of nuclear war through Nagai's account.
There is little literature in Bengali on nuclear war, he said.
