In the 1970s and 1980s, when anti-Japanese and anti-Korean sentiments ran high due to textbook disputes and other issues, Zhang Hohn (1940–2026) famously projected the spirit of Koreans in Japanese professional baseball through indomitable willpower against discrimination.

He remains deeply etched in the memories of baseball fans in both Korea and Japan as a great hitter who overcame physical disabilities to become the only player in the history of Japanese Professional Baseball (NPB)—established in 1936—to achieve both 3,000 career hits and 500 home runs.

It is widely known that the right hand fingers of Zhang, who passed away on the 9th, looked drastically different from those of an ordinary person.

Born in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1940 to parents who moved there from Changnyeong, Gyeongsangnam-do, the late baseball star suffered severe burns from a bonfire at the age of four.

As a consequence, his right thumb and index finger were severely bent, and his ring finger and pinky finger became fused together.

Because his right palm also failed to function properly and his grip strength drastically weakened, Zhang inevitably transitioned from a right-handed batter to a left-handed one.

Even as a left-handed hitter, a batter must push through with the right hand until the very end when swinging the bat.

Using that impaired right hand, Zhang became a legendary slugger in Japanese professional baseball, winning seven batting titles, nine on-base percentage titles, and three most-hits titles, while also earning Rookie of the Year and MVP honors.

Nowadays, an increasing number of players head to Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States after playing in Japanese professional baseball, making Zhang's total of 3,085 hits achieved solely in Japan likely an immortal record.

As the sole player to surpass 3,000 hits, Zhang also slugged 504 home runs, simultaneously displaying exquisite precision and immense power.

Having lost an elder sister due to the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and later losing his father as well, Zhang spent his school days rebelling—fighting back with his fists against Japanese students who discriminated against Koreans—before dedicating himself single-mindedly to baseball through his exceptional talent and growing into a professional player.

It is also a well-known anecdote that Zhang forced a change in Japanese professional baseball regulations.

The Toei Flyers club (currently the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters), which sought to recruit Zhang, encouraged him to naturalize as a Japanese citizen in accordance with the regulation at the time that limited each team to two foreign players.

However, faced with strong opposition from his mother, who declared, "There is no need to play baseball at the cost of selling your motherland," Zhang stood firm in retaining his South Korean nationality. Eventually, the Nippon Professional Baseball organization established a new exception rule excluding players born and raised in Japan from the foreign player quota regardless of nationality, thereby approving Zhang's entry into the professional league.

Thanks to this rule, a considerable number of Zainichi Korean players in later years were able to play in Japanese professional baseball while maintaining their pride as Koreans.

Zhang and the phrase "hit-manufacturing machine" are synonymous.

He recorded 100 or more hits for 20 consecutive seasons, notching 150 or more hits in a single season nine of those times.

He recorded a batting average of .300 or higher for nine consecutive years, holding the NPB record in this category.

Possessing great speed, he also accumulated 319 stolen bases.

He is the only batter in Japanese professional baseball history to achieve a batting average of .300, 500 home runs, and 300 stolen bases.

Standing 181 centimeters tall and weighing 85 kilograms, Zhang generated hits and extra-base hits with his robust physique, having little need to lay down bunts and executing only 4 sacrifice bunts in his entire career.

During his days with the Yomiuri Giants, he once ignored a squeeze bunt sign from Japanese baseball legend manager Shigeo Nagashima and hit safely instead, drawing a reprimand from Nagashima after the game.

In 1970, when he broke the NPB single-season batting average record after 19 years with an average of .3834, Zhang set the new record not with a sacrifice bunt, but with a safety bunt executed out of his own survival instinct.

When the legendary Zhang set a single-season batting average record using a bunt, criticisms arose calling it "cowardly," but Zhang later reflected in substance, "Looking back, I regret not laying down safety bunts more often, as it kept me from hitting .400."

Zhang's batting average of .3834 remained the highest single-season batting average in Japanese professional baseball for 26 years, until Randy Bass raised it to .389 in 1986.

(Photo: Yonhap News)