Bruneian in Atomic Bomb Hiroshima

I remembered when I was in Darjah 4 way back in the very early 1970s, one of the fahaman article or comprehension I was reading had a story about a Brunei man during the aftermath of the first atomic bomb in Hiroshima. Apparently he had been a student there and the bomb fell over the city. Luckily he survived the bombing. After that I searched high and low for the book but to no avail. At that time I didn't know who the author was let alone from which book was the excerpt taken from.

About three years ago, I was in Mega Book Store. That's a free plug for the bookshop. I found this book written by Pengiran Yusof. I am 46 years old now and of course by now I know who he is and that he was the one who was in Hiroshima when the bomb was dropped by the Americans. I glanced through the book and lo and behold, that narrative was in the book. I quickly bought it, it was only $9.60.

I was rather surprised to discover that the book was only published in 2002 by Dewan Bahasa Malaysia. So I am still wondering where that book I read in the 1970s got their excerpt from.

The book covered a number of grounds, especially about the early history of the Japanese occupation in Borneo and Brunei. The personal narration of the author on how managed to be chosen to go to Japan, how the bomb hit and how he managed to get back to Brunei. It was indeed a long journety.

If Pengiran had not returned to Brunei, Brunei would have lost one of her greatest statesman. Pengiran was instrumental in the national anthem. He was also one of the member of the Legislative Council. Pengiran Yusof was also a former State Secrtary (SUK) as well as being our Chief Minister. He certainly had a colourful career.