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According to this Quanta article about June Huh, there exists a memoir by Heisuke Hironaka called The Joy of Learning.

It seems to be this short article:

  • Heisuke Hironaka, The joy of learning, SEIBUTSU BUTSURI KAGAKU 44 Issue 2 (2000) pp. 53-57, doi:10.2198/sbk.44.53

which is in Japanese.

On the other hand, this page refers to an English translation by Bang Seung-yang. Does anyone know where this translation can be found?

Supposedly some generations of Japanese and Korean children have been greatly inspired by it, so it could be very interesting to read.

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    $\begingroup$ Bang Seung-Yang is a Korean translator who translated this book into Korean, not English. I guess your linked website (Dept. of Math. at Korea University) translated the Korean catalogue directly without any consideration. $\endgroup$
    – Hanul Jeon
    Commented Feb 4, 2021 at 11:55
  • $\begingroup$ (By the way, I don't understand why Mathoverflow refuses to include Korean in my comment. Please let me know if there is any question about my link.) $\endgroup$
    – Hanul Jeon
    Commented Feb 4, 2021 at 11:56
  • $\begingroup$ Even worse, the original Japanese title of this book is probably not the joy of learning. I will give an answer after some investigation... $\endgroup$
    – Hanul Jeon
    Commented Feb 4, 2021 at 12:01
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    $\begingroup$ The short article you linked is not a memoir. It is the text of a public ("culture") lecture at the Japanese Electrophoresis Society's 50th meeting. However, it does have lots of interesting anecdotes about his contemporaries together with reflections on people who inspired him. $\endgroup$
    – S. Carnahan
    Commented Feb 4, 2021 at 13:12

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It seems like that there is no such translation. Moreover, the essay you linked and the book you linked are different material, although they have the same title.

I searched the book whose author is Heisuke Hironaka, but I cannot find any essays written by Heisuke Hironaka, except for those in Japanese. Does it mean the book referred by June Huh and the linked catalogue does not exist? No.

It is common to change the title of a book, movie, etc., during translation. An example would be Castle in the Sky, whose original title is Tenkū no Shiro Rapyuta (天空の城ラピュタ, whose meaning is Laputa: a castle in the sky.) We may guess that the same happens for Hironaka's autobiography, but neither June Huh nor the translator of the catalog has not double-checked the original title of the book.

The above scenario is in part supported by your linked catagolue on Korea University. It mentioned the translator is Bang Seung-Yang. I can find that 방승양 (Bang Seung-Yang) is the translator of Hironaka's book Hakmun ui Jeulgeoum (학문의 즐거움, The joy of Learning.) Korea University is, as the name suggests, a university in Korea. Hence we may guess the catalogue is originally written in Korean, then translated into English later. But the translater was likely not doing any double-check the title of the books.

Then what is the original title of Hironaka's autobiography? After a quick search, I found that a thread on Reddit suggested Gakumon no Hakken (学問の発見, The discovery of academics.) Hironaka wrote other books for non-mathematicians, like

I compared the contents of the books with the Korean one, and I can see that Reddit's suggestion was correct: the original title of The Joy of Learning should be The discovery of academics.

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    $\begingroup$ (I always confuse the proper order of Japanese in Roman letters. I know that mentioning someone's first name without putting the last name could be viewed as impolite. I ask for an excuse for Japanese on my previous version of the answer. It is a mistake.) $\endgroup$
    – Hanul Jeon
    Commented Feb 4, 2021 at 12:57
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    $\begingroup$ Thank you so much for this fantastically researched answer. I appreciate it so much. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 4, 2021 at 17:12

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