Hariprobha Takeda (1890-1972) also known as Hariprobha Basu Mallik was a

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

woman who married a Japanese national. She lived in Japan and wrote a notable autobiography which was turned into a movie in Bangladesh.

Personal life

Front page of the book of Bangla mahila Japan jatra

In 1907 Hariprobha married Wemon Takeda, a Japanese businessman residing in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...

East Bengal ur, , common_name = East Bengal , status = Province of the Dominion of Pakistan , p1 = Bengal Presidency , flag_p1 = Flag of British Bengal.svg , s1 = East ...

. He manufactured soaps in Bulbul soap factory. Hariprobha moved to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

in 1912. She published ''Bongo Mohilar Japan Jatra'' (A Bengali Lady's Visit to Japan), which detailed her travels and experiences there. She settled permanently in Japan in 1941.

World War II

Hariprobha Takeda with Subhas Chandra Bose

She worked for the

Japanese imperial army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

broadcasting messages/news for the Bengali

Indian National Army The Indian National Army (INA; ''Azad Hind Fauj'' ; 'Free Indian Army') was a collaborationist armed force formed by Indian collaborators and Imperial Japan on 1 September 1942 in Southeast Asia during World War II. Its aim was to secure In ...

led

Subhas Chandra Bose Subhas Chandra Bose ( ; 23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945 * * * * * * * * *) was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperia ...

from 1944–1945. The Indian National Army was allied with Japan during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. During the war her husband fell ill. She travelled to work at the dead of night to avoid allied bombing of Tokyo. She wrote another book about the effect of the war on the Japanese people. She was aided in her broadcasts by

Rash Behari Bose Rash Behari Bose (; 25 May 1886 – 21 January 1945) was an Indian revolutionary leader against the British Raj. He was one of the key organisers of the Ghadar Mutiny and founded the First Indian National Army during World War 2. The Indian N ...

. She moved to

Jalpaiguri Jalpaiguri is a city in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Jalpaiguri district as well as of the Jalpaiguri division of West Bengal, covering the jurisdiction of the five districts of North Bengal. The city is loca ...

, West Bengal, after her husband's death.

Legacy

Hariprobha died in 1972 in Shambhunath Pandit Hospital,

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

Tanvir Mokammel Tanvir Mokammel (born 8 March 1955) is a Bangladeshi filmmaker and writer. He is the recipient of Ekushey Padak in 2017. He won Bangladesh National Film Awards total ten times for the films ''Nodir Naam Modhumoti'' (1995), '' Chitra Nodir Pare'' ( ...

have made a documentary based on her book and her life called ''Japani Bodhu'' (''The Japanese Wife'').

References

1972 deaths Indian independence movement Indian Independence League People from Dhaka District Bengali people Emigrants from British India to Japan Naturalized citizens of Japan 1890 births Japanese non-fiction writers 20th-century Japanese women writers Writers from Kolkata {{India-bio-stub