TEHRAN – “Immigrant from the Land of the Sun”, the latest book by Iranian writer Hamid Hesam containing memoirs of the mother of martyr Mohammad Babai Koniko Yamamura, has been published in several languages.

The book has been translated into Arabic, Turkish, Russian, Urdu and Pashtu, and will be distributed in the destination countries.

The Art Bureau of the Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization is the publisher of the book.

Yamamura is the only Japanese mother whose son was martyred during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, and the book covers the memories of the mother of the martyr.

Yamamura chose the name Saba after she married an Iranian Muslim in Japan and moved to Iran afterwards, where her life was totally changed after her 19-year old son Mohammad was martyred.

What makes her life distinguished are the events that changed her life.

“I never thought my life story would turn into a book, because if I were living in Japan with my parents, I would have had a typical life, but marrying an Iranian Muslim changed my life totally,” she has said.

“After the martyrdom of my son, several writers proposed to write my biography but I did not agree, but in a journey to Hiroshima I met Hesam and I trusted him, and the interviews began for the book,” she added.

Hesam has also said that he met Yamamura in 2014 during a visit to Hiroshima along with a number of Iranian cineastes, authors and war veterans who attended the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony.

The ceremony is held annually to commemorate the anniversary of the tragedy of the U.S. nuclear attack on the Japanese city.

“I met Yamaumura at the airport where she was introduced to us as the translator of the team. I noticed that she was reciting verses of the Holy Quran while onboard or when she sometimes told me short memories of her life,” Hesam said.

“Later, I noticed that she patiently listened to the survivors of the Hiroshima atomic bombardment and those Iranian veterans injured in Iraqi chemical attacks as she was in tears. It was in those years that I began talks through interviews, and gradually I was successful in writing her untold stories,” Hesam said.

Hamid Hesam was honored at the Islamic Revolution Artist of the Year in 2018. 

Photo: Front cover of a Persian copy of “Immigrant from the Land of the Sun” by Hamid Hesam.

RM/MMS/YAW