Mahbubur Rahman, 36, said he came to know Nagai's work -- the personal chronicle of a physician suffering from leukemia who treated victims of the atomic bomb that was dropped in Nagasaki in 1945 even though he himself was exposed to the atomic bombing -- through research on the sufferings of atomic-bomb victims.

Rahman, a lawyer by profession, said he found an English edition of ''Nagasaki no Kane'' at the Japanese Embassy in Dacca in 1997 and was deeply moved by Nagai's tragic story and his yearning for peace.

Born in 1908, Nagai became a hero in Japan following the publication of ''Nagasaki no Kane.'' His book was turned into a movie and a song composed in Nagai's memory that carries the same title as the book became immensely popular in Japan. Nagai died in 1951.

The Bengali edition of ''The Bells of Nagasaki'' is being published amid heightened concern on the horrors of nuclear warfare in the Asian subcontinent following the threat of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan.

Rahman, who received a 500,000 yen donation from the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to cover the publishing costs, said he wants to let his fellow Bangladeshis know about the horrors of nuclear warfare through Nagai's personal chronicle.

There is little literature in Bengali on nuclear war, he said.