.jpg "Naoki Hyakuta (L) and Habib Ahmadzadeh shake hands after exchanging copies of “The Man Who Was Called a Pirate” and “Chess with the Doomsday Machine” during a meeting at the Tehran Peace Museum on February 22, 2014. (ISNA)")
TEHRAN -- Naoki Hyakuta, the Japanese author of “The Man Who Was Called a Pirate”, and Habib Ahmadzadeh, the Iranian author of “Chess with the Doomsday Machine”, met at The Tehran Peace Museum on Saturday to discuss works which promote nationalism in the countries of the two writers.
“The Man Who Was Called a Pirate” is a historical novel based on the Nissho Maru Incident, in which the Japanese oil company Idemitsu won a court case against the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in 1953 when Iran was involved in a dispute with Great Britain after nationalizing its oil industry.
The incident helped Japan restore its confidence, which had been lost in the aftermath of World War II.
“Hyakuta has written an amazing novel based on the incident, which sold about 2 million copies in 2013 and was Japan’s bestseller of the year,” Ahmadzadeh said.
“This book should be translated into Persian and its story should also be turned into a film in order to recollect some historical events for the current Iranian younger generation,” he added.
Part of the story is set in Ahmadzadeh’s homeland Abadan, a city in southwest Iran. The story of “Chess with the Doomsday Machine” is also set in the city during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.
“Chess with the Doomsday Machine” is about a young man, who stays in Abadan to defend his hometown, which has been attacked by Iraqi forces.
An English version of the novel translated by the U.S. scholar Paul Sprachman has previously released by Mazda Publications.
Hyakuta and Ahmadzadeh exchanged books at the meeting, which was attended a number of Iranian literati and Japanese diplomats.
MMS/YAW
END