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Barry Bonds, former major league star, visits Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and tours Peace Memorial Museum

by Yusuke Egawa, Staff Writer

On July 20, Barry Bonds, 53, a former professional baseball player in the United States who holds the Major League Baseball record of 762 home runs, visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park for the first time. He learned about the reality of the atomic bombing at the Peace Memorial Museum and expressed his hope for a peaceful world, saying that this sort of tragic event should never happen again.

Guided by Shuichi Kato, the deputy director of the museum, Mr. Bonds toured the museum and shared his impressions. Commenting that the horrific nature of the A-bomb attack was heartbreaking, he took in exhibits like a computer graphics display that simulates the destruction of Hiroshima in the aftermath of the atomic bombing and photos of people suffering the dreadful conditions left in the wake of the attack. He also offered flowers to the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims.

In an interview, Mr. Bonds said that his visit to the park and museum was deeply affecting and that he hopes no other place on earth will ever experience what Hiroshima has suffered.

Mr. Bonds also mentioned that his interest in Hiroshima was inspired by former U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to the A-bombed city in 2016. Mr. Bonds arrived in Japan on July 16. Fukuyama Transporting, a transportation company based in Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture, helped arrange for his visit to Hiroshima because the company has a close relationship with Mr. Bonds’s friend, the president of a transportation company in the United States.

(Originally published on July 21, 2018)

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