MLB Players Lay Flowers at Cenotaph for Hiroshima A-Bomb Victims

November 13, 2018

Hiroshima--A group of U.S. Major League Baseball players has visited Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and laid flowers at the cenotaph for victims of the August 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of the western Japan city of Hiroshima.

The players, including Seattle Mariners outfielder Mitch Haniger and Kenta Maeda, a Japanese pitcher of the Los Angeles Dodgers, paid the visit on Monday during their trip to Japan for a six-game all-star series between MLB and Samurai Japan, which is made up of players from Japanese professional baseball teams.

Guided by Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui, the major leaguers also toured Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in the park.

Don Mattingly, manager of the Miami Marlins, who heads the MLB team in the all-star series, said he is humbled to visit the park, adding that Maeda and other members of the team will do their best to play great games.

Matsui said that he told the MLB players about the spirit of Hiroshima. "I want them to spread peace to the world through baseball."

Maeda said that he wants to show his performances with the joy of being able to play baseball and the feeling of gratitude.

Maeda, who played for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp, a Japanese professional baseball team, before moving to the Dodgers in 2016, is scheduled to start Tuesday's game at Mazda Zoom-Zoom Stadium Hiroshima.

Hiroshima was flattened the U.S. atomic bombing on Aug. 6, 1945, in the closing days of World War II. Nagasaki, a southwestern Japan city, suffered the same fate three days later. Jiji Press