In 1966, Angel Stadium opened as Anaheim Stadium; I was just a kid in 4th grade. I remember how exciting it was when my family went to the stadium to see Major League Baseball right here in Orange County.  It seemed like everyone was an Angels fan, wearing a round metal badge saying, “Anaheim Angels” in red & white.  We were all so proud of this new stadium and new home team. I even decorated my bulletin board with an Angels theme and got baseball cards of players!

It was exciting to have Major League Baseball in Orange County and I assumed all the players would be White or Black or Latino.  I never considered a Japanese or Japanese American on the line-up. I do remember being told that one of the Japanese men who worked on our farm for decades had played baseball in Japan, but I didn’t think much about it then. Little did I know at the time that there was a rich Japanese American history of baseball. 

In Japanese, most western words are in katakana (romanized alphabet) letters, but not baseball.  Baseball is “野球” in kanji characters like traditional Japanese words.  “Yakyu” literally means field ball. It's in kanji because of baseball’s long history in Japan, starting in the late 1800s. 

I met Bill Staples, Jr., a noted baseball historian, author, and member of the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) at Arizona State University in February 2024 when we were both part of a Japanese American history event. Bill is also the current President of the Arizona JACL (Japanese American Citizens League).  When I asked him how he got interested in Japanese American history and baseball, he said one of his heroes is Kenichi “Zeni” Zenimura.  I’d never heard of “Zen!” Here’s some facts I’ve learned from Bill and his book (pg. 1-4):

• 1897: The first person of Japanese ancestry attempted to play in the major leagues in the US.

• 1900:  Kenichi Zenimura was born in Hiroshima, Japan; moved to Hawaii as a young boy.  

• 1903: The first Japanese American baseball team was organized and quickly spread to West Coast cities like Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Fresno, Los Angeles, and smaller cities like Fresno had teams.

• 1905: Major league baseball (MLB) “color-line” drawn against Japanese players publicly acknowledged. 

• 1910: First Japanese American baseball league was founded.  Known as the Nisei Leagues, they were financially sustainable with competitive teams up until World War II in 1942. 

• 1920: Zenimura moves to Fresno, CA where he played baseball and excelled at all 9 positions. 

• He would also go on to manage teams. 

• 1918- 1955: Zenimura’s passion for baseball led him to elevate Japanese American baseball teams & leagues, both in the US and Japan, before and after WWII.

  • Zenimura led goodwill baseball tours in 1924, 1927, and 1937 for Japanese American teams to Japan. 

  • 1927: Zenimura organized a Negro League All Star tour to Japan. 

• 1922-1931: Nisei/Japanese American and Negro League teams did more to export the American game to Japan than did their MLB counterparts. No MLB goodwill teams visited Japan during these years. 

• 1931-34 MLB Japan tour of stars like Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth.

• 1936: Nippon Professional Baseball League officially founded in Japan. 

• 1941: Imperial Japan bombs Pearl Harbor; US enters WWII.

• 1942: Executive Order #9066 signed by President Roosevelt, forcibly removing West Coast Japanese Americans to incarceration camps.

All West Coast Japanese American lives came to an abrupt halt when Pearl Harbor was bombed by Japan on December 7, 1941. Executive Order #9066 was signed by President Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. EO #9066 initiated the forced removal of all Japanese Americans from the West Coast. Zenimura and his family left Fresno, and were incarcerated at the Gila River War Relocation Center, located on the Gila River Indian Reservation, roughly 60 miles southeast of Phoenix AZ. 

In the middle of a world war, not knowing when they might be released, Zenimura did not give up his passion for baseball. Within weeks of arriving at Gila River, he got permission from the War Relocation Authority (WRA) camp administrator to build a baseball field outside the barbed wire fence of the incarceration camp. Zeni and his  sons built a real baseball diamond with stands and a dugout from leftover scrap lumber and old fence posts. Between 1943-45, Zenimura organized about 40 games with outside teams, including top high school, college, White and Negro semipro teams. His team’s won 75% of all the games played in the dusty desert against these top Arizona baseball teams.

All ten incarceration camps put together baseball leagues and fields to play.  Teams played each other within the camps, and where possible, other area high school, college and semi pro teams traveled to the camps to play.  While this may sound like camp was a fun playground during WWII, it has to be noted that of the 125,000 incarcerated, two-thirds were born American citizens.  I’ve also seen it estimated that half were 18 years old and under. For the 3 to 3 ½ years of incarceration, they needed to have something “normal” in the midst of the injustice of the freedom they lost and adversity they faced daily.  And for many, baseball was it! 

One of my favorite stories about Zeni and his Gila River Butte High School baseball team is when they played the 3 year undefeated state champs, Tucson High School. The game was tied 10-10 when in the 10th inning, Zeni’s son came to bat to win the game. A victorious win for the all Nisei team and coach Zeni!  But greater yet was the shared victory of two teams and their post-game connection.  Zeni had watermelons for both team’s post- game treat and they showed the Tucson team how to do Japanese “sumo.” This baseball brotherhood showed that they were all Americans, all loved baseball, and grew in friendship with each other - no matter the scoreboard or the war.  

Tucson High Coach Hank Slagle said, “I sincerely hope it won’t be too long till we are all thinking straight again and can live together in a true Democracy that we Americans of all races have created.” 

This 7 minute newsclip tells the story and the 2006 reunion of the players from both teams. At the reunion, former players said, “We were one team… a part of history.” “Both teams were winners that day. This is what baseball was meant to be.”

After the war, Zenimura returned to Fresno to re-establish his life and he continued to be baseball ambassador between the US and Japan.  He welcomed Japanese teams to the US and also served as a scout and “agent” of sorts for players to college and professional teams in Japan.  In fact, his sons played for the Hiroshima Carp baseball team in Japan and kept the family’s baseball legacy alive. 

Sadly, Zenimura died after his truck was hit by a drunk driver who ran a stop sign while he was driving home from work. He was only 68 years old.  The Fresno newspaper obituary honored him as “ the Dean of Nisei baseball in America.” 

If “Zeni” could see today's headlines with all the Japanese players' names on the roster, I can just imagine his smile.  And to see Shohei Ohtani, two-way superstar pitcher and hitter, with the largest contract in professional sports history would likely be quite a shock!

I think of Zeni as a visionary who knew that baseball was more than a sport.  It would be a lasting bridge to connect Americans despite barbed wire fences, and two nations despite the Pacific Ocean and a world war between them.  

So the next time you go to the ball field, and hear “play ball,” I hope you’ll think of Zeni and how he paved the way for Japanese and Japanese Americans to play “yakyu,” or baseball, the All American and All Japanese sport! 

—----------------------------------

In addition to Bill’s book, here’s other books and films that tell the Japanese American baseball history. 

Films:

 “American Pastime” - inspired by Zenimura’s story, this film centers around a family in the Topaz, UT camp community and how baseball helped them to survive their daily hardships and adversity. 

“Baseball Behind Barbed Wire” - a short film carved out of The Dianmond Diplomacy documentary project, includes the story of Zenimura.  

Books:

In the Press

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