shohei ohtani looms large in the snowy hokkaido town of sapporo. a fastball, sapporo is a curveball. japan's fifth-largest city feels not unlike a laid-back ski village. but this is a baseball town. and this is the home stadium, the sapporo dome. it's here we sat down with ohtani. we broke the ice with a question about what we'd heard was his favorite local fast food. very important question. in & out burger or captain kangaroo burger? >> shohei ohtani ( translated ): captain kangaroo. >> wertheim: better? towering and affable, ohtani is working on his english, but felt more comfortable using a translator during our interview. >> wertheim: i want to ask you about coming to the majors. but should we say, "if," or should we say, "when"? >> ohtani ( translated ): that's a tough one. i mean, nothing is for certain, so, i guess it's "if." >> wertheim: despite that cautious response, ohtani eagerly revealed which major league players he looks most forward to facing- no less than m.v.p. hitter bryce harper and star pitcher clayton kershaw. >> ohtani ( tra

so, the thought of the soviet union coming into the war, sharing in the occupation, taking hokkaido -- it was japan's worst nightmare -- the worst nightmare. so, all of a sudden, when the soviets came in, the surrender -- japan's surrender to the united states appeared to be its best possible option. there was no way the japanese were going to lend themselves to being occupied by the soviet union if there was some way to prevent it. so, i think it is fair to say, certainly based on that line of argument and during the q&a period we can, you know, sort of , talk about other lines of , that the atomic bomb did not end the war. it was soviet entry into the war, and it is probably also fair to say that if the timing the bombing, since and the soviets entering the war occurred simultaneously, more or less, that the bombs did not save any american lives. in fact, i discovered in some research that i did, that two americans who are in a hiroshima jail -- two pilots, whose names , wereerman and ralph killed during the atomic bombing. what were the reactions? we are talking about visions of th