Baseball legend and Hiroshima bombing survivor Isao Harimoto dies at 86
Japanese baseball great Isao Harimoto, who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima as a child, has died in Tokyo aged 86, leaving behind a record as the only player in Japanese league history to reach 3,000 hits.
Isao Harimoto, widely regarded as one of the greatest players in Japanese professional baseball history, has died in Tokyo at the age of 86.
Over a 23-season career, Harimoto amassed 3,085 hits, the most in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) history and the only instance of a player crossing the 3,000-hit mark in the league.
He also hit 504 home runs and stole 319 bases, making him the only NPB player ever to combine at least 500 home runs with 300 stolen bases. Globally, only three Major League Baseball players — Barry Bonds, Willie Mays and Alex Rodriguez — have matched that combination.
Surviving Hiroshima
Born Jang Hun in Hiroshima in 1940 to Korean parents who had moved to Japan during its occupation of Korea, Harimoto lived his entire life in Japan and adopted a Japanese name, though he did not gain citizenship until later in life.
As a young child, an accident left him with severe burns to his right hand, forcing him to bat and throw left-handed. A year later, on 6 August 1945, he was in Hiroshima when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city. The five-year-old survived unharmed after his mother shielded him and his sister with her body, though another sister died.
A decorated career
Harimoto joined the Toei Flyers in 1959, spending 16 seasons with the club and helping them win their first Japan Series title in 1962. He later played for the Yomiuri Giants and Lotte Orions. Across his career he won seven batting titles, including four consecutive from 1967 to 1970, was named an all-star 18 times, and was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1990.
He retired in 1981 after 2,752 games. Harimoto went on to help establish South Korea's KBO baseball league before working as a baseball commentator.
