Award-Winning Burmese Writer Dr. Khin Let Ya Visits TUFS

January 18, 2018

On Friday the 29th of September, Dr. Khin Let Ya, previous recipient of the Myanmar National Literature Award, met with President Tateishi and, as a token of gratitude for the work TUFS has done towards Japan-Myanmar relations, donated eight books to TUFS.
Dr. Khin Let Ya graduated from the University of Medicine 1, Yangon, received a diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Research from Thailand's Mahidol University, received her Master's degree in Public Hygienics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and worked for the United Nations for many years. After retiring, she began researching about her father, who was one of the 'thirty comrades' who contributed towards Myanmar's Independence, and is currently writing down accounts of Myanmar's independence period by collecting such things as oral history and diaries. One of these books, 'My Father, Bo Let Ya,' won the Myanmar National Literature Award (2012, belles-letters category). The 'thirty comrades' are famous in Myanmar as the heroes of Burmese independence, but were also closely tied with Japan's Minami Kikan. The Minami Kikan invited 30 extraordinary young men, lead by Aung San, to train under them overseas. Following this, these men went on to form the Burma Independence Army, and put up resistance against Britain, and then Japan, paving the way for Burmese independence. The documents Dr. Khin Let Ya is compiling are very important, as they contain detailed information about Japan-Myanmar relations.
An informal meeting was also held with Ms. Khin Soe Naung, wife of the ambassador, and Khaimar Wint Zin Than, first secretary, attending from the Burmese embassy in Japan, and Vice President Kayoko Hayashi, Head of Burmese Professor Keiko Tosa (Institute of Global Studies, Cultural Anthropology), and specially-appointed professor Sai Kyaw Tun (World Language and Society Education Centre, Burmese Department) attending from TUFS.