Korean-Japanese baseball legend Isao Harimoto, who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, has died in Tokyo at the age of 86.
Harimoto, known as the Hit Machine, recorded the most hits in Japanese baseball history – with 3,085 hits during his 23-season caree. He is the only player in Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB) history to reach 3,000 hits.
He also hit 504 home runs and stole 319 bases, making him the only player in NPB history with at least 500 homers and 300 stolen bases.
Only three players in Major League Baseball history have achieved the same feat: Barry Bonds, Willie Mays and Alex Rodriguez.
The 18-time all-star player helped the Toei Flyers win their first Japan Series in 1962, and was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1990.
“All members of the Meikyukai express our deep respect and gratitude for Mr Isao Harimoto’s many years of great achievements, and we sincerely pray for [following] his passing,” the Golden Players Club – one of Japanese baseball’s two halls of fame – said in a statement.
Harimoto – whose birth name was Jang Hun – overcame significant obstacles to achieve greatness.
He was born in Hiroshima in 1940 to Korean parents who migrated to Japan during the country’s rule of Korea. Though he lived in Japan his entire life and adopted a Japanese name, he did not receive citizenship until later in life.
As a young child, he was involved in an accident that left him with severe burns on his right hand.
With limited mobility in his thumb and forefinger and his middle three fingers frozen into a curled position, he was forced to become a left-handed thrower and hitter.
On his curled right hand, he wore a custom glove that allowed him to catch the ball.
Yet he could have easily never had the opportunity to play baseball.
A year after his accident, Harimoto was in Hiroshima on 6 August, 1945, when the United States detonated an atomic bomb over the city during the final days of World War Two.
The five-year-old survived unharmed – in 2011 he explained that his mother used her body to shield him and his sister after the flash of the bomb exploding. Another sister did not survive.
Harimoto went on to enjoy an outstanding career, joining the Toei Flyers in 1959 with whom he spent 16 years before later representing the Yomiuri Giants and the Lotte Orions.
He won seven batting titles, including four in a row from 1967 to 1970, a feat equalled several decades later by Ichiro Suzuki. He retired in 1981 after playing 2,752 games.
Harimoto helped launch South Korea’s KBO baseball league in 1982 before embarking on a career in baseball commentary and punditry.