History of Japanese American Baseball

Most historians credit American schoolteacher Horace Wilson with introducing baseball to Japan in 1872. However, recent discoveries suggest that soldiers aboard the USS Colorado arrived a year earlier and taught the game to members of the Japanese army at the Kawaguchi settlement in Osaka.1 Whatever its precise origins, by the end of the nineteenth century baseball had become Japan’s most popular team sport.

Meanwhile, on the US mainland, the earliest known record of Japanese people playing baseball dates to June 7, 1872, when members of the Yeddo Royal Japanese Acrobatic Troupe staged an exhibition game in Washington, DC. Several members of the troupe, joined by their agent and interpreter, faced off against players from the Olympic Base Ball Club at Olympic Grounds. The Daily Morning Chronicle billed the contest as “a grand international game,” noting that “the Japs are not novices with the ‘willow,’ and some Americans are not without apprehension that the West will meet with a crushing defeat from the East.”2

The Daily National Republican described the game as competitive, reporting that it “came near being a victory for the Orientals. The style in which they (the Japanese) handle the ball and bat somewhat astonished our boys.” Had rain not stopped the game, there was a real chance the Japanese might have won. The final score was 18–17, with inning-by-inning tallies showing the game tied 15–15 heading into the fifth, setting up a thrilling finish.3

According to the press, the Yeddo Royal Troupe prepared for two days “under the guidance of Professor Brainard.”4 This “professor” was none other than Asa Brainard, pitcher for the Washington Olympics during the 1871 and 1872 seasons.

JAPANESE AMERICAN BASEBALL IN HAWAII

Alexander Joy Cartwright, often called “The Father of Modern Baseball,” is credited with codifying the rules of the modern game and organizing the first formal club, the New York Knickerbockers, in 1845. Just four years later, he settled in Honolulu, where he spent the remainder of his life teaching and promoting baseball throughout the Hawaiian Islands.

In 1899, Reverend Takie Okumura organized the first known Japanese American team in Hawaii, the Excelsiors of Honolulu. Six years later, in 1905, pitcher Steere Gikaku Noda established the Hawaiian Asahi.5 Within a decade, thriving and highly competitive leagues emerged along ethnic lines, with Japanese American clubs competing against Chinese American, Portuguese, Hawaiian, and Caucasian teams, and even the renowned African American military squad, the 25th Infantry Wreckers.6

 

 

JAPANESE AMERICAN BASEBALL ON THE MAINLAND

On the US mainland, Japanese immigrants began appearing on integrated baseball teams as early as the late 1890s. According to The Sporting News, in 1897, Cleveland Spiders manager Patsy Tebeau attempted to sign an unnamed Japanese player from Chicago’s amateur leagues—identified only as the half-brother of Japanese wrestler Sorakichi Matsuda.7 Another Nikkei player, an outfielder named Sugimoto who reportedly once played for the Negro League’s Cuban Giants, was scouted by New York Giants manager John McGraw in 1905.8 Sugimoto’s presence at the Giants’ spring training, however, helped solidify the unspoken extension of the color line to exclude not only Black players but also those of Asian ancestry from White professional baseball.

Anti-Black, anti-Japanese, and broader anti-immigrant sentiment ran strong in professional baseball during the early 1900s. In the February 12, 1910, issue of The Sporting Life, legendary pitcher Cy Young remarked, “They (the Japs) are like the Cubans—too small to be big players. …That’s the trouble with all foreigners. Base ball will always be an American game.”9 Some historians excuse such comments as typical of the era. Yet evidence suggests otherwise. After returning from a global goodwill tour in 1913, John McGraw confidently predicted, “Mark my prediction. Some star ball players will come out of Japan within the next ten years.”10 His forecast, however, would not come true for another half-century.

Why the delay? The answer lies in the broader climate of discrimination. In the early twentieth century America, people of Japanese ancestry—like African Americans and other minority groups—faced systemic racial barriers across every aspect of life. Civil rights pioneer and NAACP founder W.E.B. Du Bois underscored this reality in 1913, writing, “The fight of the Japanese for equal rights is similar to the fight the Negroes are making for their rights. Educated people of all races recognize that the color line is artificial.”11

ANTI-ASIAN SENTIMENT & THE AMERICAN PASTIME

Anti-Asian sentiment in the United States, rooted in systemic racism and exclusionary laws, created steep barriers for Japanese players who aspired to compete in major league baseball. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 marked the first major federal legislation to target Asian immigrants and set a precedent for anti-Japanese measures in the early twentieth century. Laws soon followed that deepened these divisions: in 1906, a federal ruling restricted naturalized citizenship to “free white persons” and people of African descent;12 in 1907, the Gentlemen’s Agreement curtailed Japanese labor immigration; and Alien Land Laws across several states stripped Japanese immigrants of property rights. In 1922, the US Supreme Court’s decision in Ozawa v. United States declared Japanese immigrants ineligible for citizenship, and the Immigration Act of 1924 went further, banning nearly all Asian immigration and heightening tensions between the US and Japan.

These policies directly shaped opportunities on the baseball diamond. In 1924, Kenichi Zenimura’s team was barred from the San Joaquin Valley Baseball League after officials declared their intent to preserve it as a “white man’s” league.13 A decade later, when the Tokyo Giants toured the US in 1935, standout players such as pitcher Eiji Sawamura and pitcher-outfielder Victor Starffin drew praise from scouts, yet they were barred from signing with professional clubs due to their lack of US citizenship.14

Legal restrictions, combined with the economic scapegoating of immigrants during the Great Depression and the surge of anti-Japanese hostility during World War II, denied many of Japan’s finest players the opportunity to compete in the majors. It was not until the passage of the McCarran-Walter Act in 1952 that Asian-born athletes could legally play professional baseball in the United States. That same law finally allowed first-generation Japanese immigrants (Issei), including Zenimura himself, to apply for US citizenship—a modest step forward after decades of exclusion.

LEAGUES OF THEIR OWN

Young Chiura Obata, who later became a renowned artist and illustrator, founded the Fuji Athletic Club in San Francisco in the early 1900s—the first Japanese American team on the mainland.15 In 1910, noted wrestler and jiu-jitsu master Tokugoro Ito organized the first official Japanese American Baseball League. It was headquartered in Seattle and featured six teams throughout Oregon, Washington, and California.16

The 1920s and 1930s became the Golden Era of Japanese American baseball. As the Nisei (second-generation Japanese Americans) came of age, the game’s popularity soared. For many Nikkei, baseball represented optimism and the possibility of belonging in America. Each Sunday, Japanese American communities across California, Washington, Oregon, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska went “baseball crazy.” During this period, Nikkei teams not only strengthened community identity but also offered a competitive and financially successful brand of baseball that drew fans of all ethnic backgrounds.

 

 

GAMES AGAINST HIGH-CALIBER COMPETITION

Japanese American ballplayers believed that to be the best, they had to face the best. With this in mind, Nikkei teams regularly scheduled contests against top competition from the Pacific Coast League, the California Winter League, major league and Negro League barnstormers, and visiting clubs from Japan. Far from being overmatched, Japanese American players repeatedly proved themselves worthy of sharing the field—and in many cases, they came away victorious.

An analysis of box scores and game reports from 1920 to 1940 suggests that the level of play in the Japanese American leagues mirrored the general assessment of the Negro Leagues: not every player possessed major league ability, but the stars of the league demonstrated time and again that, given the chance, they could have competed with their White counterparts at the highest level.

Among the high-caliber opponents were major league icons Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig; Negro Leagues greats Biz Mackey and Andy Cooper; Pacific Coast League standouts Tony Lazzeri, Joe DiMaggio, and Lefty O’Doul; and Japanese professional stars Shinji Hamazaki and Victor Starffin. The top teams and all-stars of the Japanese American baseball leagues included:

• Alameda Taiku-Kai: Harry Kono, Mike Nakano, Kiyo Nogami, Richard “Cy” Towata
• Arroyo Grande Y.M.B.A.: Kaz Ikeda, Seirin Ikeda
• Cheyenne Nisei: Minol Ota
• Clovis Commodores: Fumio Ikeda, Hy Ikeda, Nick Nishi
• Cortez Wildcats: Yuk Yotsuya
• Denver Nisei: George Akimoto, Dick Kitamura
• Florin Athletic Club: Herb “Moon” Kurima
• Fresno Athletic Club: Harvey Iwata, Takizo “Frank” Matsumoto, John Nakagawa, Ty Saiki, Fred Yoshikawa, Kenichi Zenimura
• Guadalupe Packers: George Aratani, Charlie Hiramatsu, Moriso Matsuno, Fred Tsuda
• Hanford Y.M.B.A.: Ben Mitsuyoshi, Shig Tokumoto
• Hawaiian Asahi: Joe Takata, Andy Yamashiro (the first Japanese American player to sign a contract in organized baseball, 1917. Yamashiro competed under the name “Andy Yim”)
• Hood River Nisei: Kay Kiyokawa
• Los Angeles Nippons: Jimmy Horio, Jack Kakuuchi, George Matsuura, Al Sako, Joe Suski
• Los Angeles Nisei All-Stars: Masao Iriyama, Noboru Iriyama
• Lodi JACL: Bill Kagawa, Masato “Mauch” Yamashita
• Monterey Minato Lions: Maya “Oyster” Miyamoto
• Salinas Taiyos: Harry “Tar” Shirachi
• San Fernando Aces: Pete Mitsui
• San Pedro Skippers: Ichi Hashimoto, Sud Kodama, Isamu “Pee Wee” Tsuda, Cy Yuguchi
• San Jose Asahi: George Hinaga, Russ Hinaga, Henry Honda, Harry “Jiggs” Yamada
• Santa Cruz Y.M.B.A.: Kuichi “Jimmy” Takei
• Seattle Asahi: Frank Fukuda
• Stockton Yamato: Kenso Nushida (the first Japanese American to play in the Pacific Coast League, in 1932), Tadashi Henry “Bozo” Wakabayashi (the first Japanese American player inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame, in 1964)
• Vancouver Asahi (Canada): Ty Suga, Roy Yamamura
• Watsonville Kasei: Mike Oita

PREWAR GOODWILL AMBASSADORS

For Nikkei ballplayers, “putting on a baseball uniform was like wearing the American flag.”17 By embracing the national pastime, Japanese Americans saw themselves as demonstrating loyalty to the United States. At the same time, they maintained ties to their heritage and to friends and family in Japan. Baseball became a bridge between the two worlds.

One of the most meaningful ways this connection was expressed was through goodwill tours. Japanese American teams traveled frequently to Asia during the first half of the twentieth century. The Seattle Asahi pioneered these efforts with tours of Japan between 1914 and 1921. Between 1923 and 1930, when no major league clubs visited Japan, it was Japanese American teams—alongside Negro League counterparts—that played a key role in exporting the American game overseas and hosting dozens of Japanese teams visiting the US.

Japanese Americans contributed off the field as well. Fluent in both language and cultural customs, they often acted as essential liaisons—facilitating outbound tours of Caucasian and African American teams to Asia, as well as inbound tours of Japanese clubs to the US Key Nikkei figures in these prewar goodwill efforts included Steere Noda, Frank Fukuda, Takizo Matsumoto, Kenichi Zenimura, Harry Kono, and George Irie.

 

 

GAMES DURING WWII INCARCERATION

One of the most unique, fascinating, and tragic chapters in US baseball history is the story of Japanese American incarceration camp baseball during World War II. The National Pastime behind barbed wire began shortly after President Franklin Roosevelt sent his famous “Green Light Letter” to Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, encouraging the continuation of the 1942 baseball season. Just weeks later, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, leading to the forced removal and incarceration of more than 125,000 Issei and Nisei from the West Coast.

Inside each of the ten camps scattered across the western United States and in Arkansas, baseball became essential to survival. It lifted morale, created a sense of normalcy, and gave both players and spectators moments of dignity in the face of injustice. Every camp had at least one field and organized leagues. In camps with particularly strong talent—such as Gila River (Arizona), Heart Mountain (Wyoming), and Jerome (Arkansas)—incarcerated teams even scheduled games against top high school, college, and semipro clubs from nearby towns. The scoreboard mattered less than the goodwill built between Japanese Americans confined behind barbed wire and the free Americans beyond the fences.

POSTWAR GOODWILL AMBASSADORS

After the war, Japanese Americans recognized that rebuilding trust at the local level with White communities was only part of the challenge—rebuilding international relations with Japan was equally important. Yet participation in Japanese American leagues never returned to its prewar heights. For those who still longed to compete at the highest levels, options were limited.

“I felt that the big leagues were closed off to us (Japanese Americans) in those days (1955),” recalled Satoshi “Fibber” Hirayama. “That was part of the reason why I went to Japan to play. In a way, we faced the same thing that the Black players went through.”18 Players such as Hirayama, brothers Kenshi and Kenso Zenimura (sons of Kenichi Zenimura), and Wally Yonamine possessed big-league talent, but with doors closed in the US, they turned to Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball League in the 1950s.

Also central to postwar baseball diplomacy was Tsuneo “Cappy” Harada, a former ballplayer once scouted by the St. Louis Cardinals and a decorated veteran of the Military Intelligence Service. Selected by General Douglas MacArthur, Harada arranged goodwill tours of major league teams in postwar Japan. He later served as special assistant to the Tokyo Giants (1951–54), helping the team win three consecutive Japanese Baseball League championships. Harada also played a crucial role in bringing the first Japanese-born player to the major leagues. Hired by New York Giants owner Horace Stoneham in 1954 to scout talent in Japan, Harada eventually delivered when Masanori Murakami signed with the San Francisco Giants in 1964—making history and opening a new chapter in US–Japan baseball relations.

THE JAPANESE AMERICAN BASEBALL LEGACY

Between the 1920s and 1950s, the pioneers of Japanese American baseball influenced hundreds of young players who carried their lessons forward to future generations. Their legacy can be seen in athletes such as Mike Lum, the first Japanese American player in the majors with the Atlanta Braves in 1967, and Ryan Yoshitomo Kurosaki, the first Japanese American pitcher, who debuted with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1975. Other Nikkei beneficiaries include Lenn Sakata, Atlee Hammaker, Don Wakamatsu, Dave Roberts, Travis Ishikawa, Kurt Suzuki, Jeremy Guthrie, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Kyle Higashioka, and Christian Yelich.

The torch of this legacy was carried most visibly by Nisei pioneers George “Hats” Omachi, Satoshi “Fibber” Hirayama, and Kenso “Howard” Zenimura. After World War II, Omachi became a mainstay in Kenichi Zenimura’s Fresno Japanese ballclub, later joining the New York Mets in 1968 as a Central California scout. He went on to scout for the Giants, Pirates, Brewers, and Astros. By the 1970s, with Japanese American participation declining, he formed the Omachi All-Stars, a multi-ethnic team that drew talent from Fresno County. Among his protégés who reached the majors were Bobby Cox, Tom Seaver, Will Clark, Rex Hudler, and Geoff Jenkins.

Satoshi “Fibber” Hirayama’s journey began in the Poston, Arizona, incarceration camp. After returning to California and excelling at Fresno State College, he signed with the Hiroshima Carp in 1955 alongside Kenshi Zenimura. Hirayama became a two-time All-Star and faced legends like Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, and Stan Musial in US–Japan exhibition games. After a decade as a Carp standout, he transitioned into scouting, identifying talent in Japan and the Dominican Republic. His discoveries included future major leaguers Timo Pérez and Alfonso Soriano.

Kenso “Howard” Zenimura followed in his father’s footsteps as an international ambassador of the game and a mentor for young athletes. In 1978, P.A. Shibata of the Japanese Boys League recruited him to manage an international travel team of 14- and 15-year-olds. When the league was restructured as the International Boys League (IBL) in 1982, Zenimura coached its first tournament in Osaka, which featured Japanese and foreign squads. He invited a 19-year-old catcher from Hayward, Don Wakamatsu, to join as an assistant coach for the Fresno IBL team. This formative trip to Japan laid the foundation for Wakamatsu’s future as manager of the Seattle Mariners, a Japanese-owned team known for recruiting top talent from Japan.

Few fans know the story of early twentieth century Japanese American baseball. To preserve it, Kerry Yo Nakagawa founded the nonprofit Nisei Baseball Research Project (NBRP, www.​nisei​baseb​all.​com) in 1996. Nakagawa, a filmmaker and historian, is the nephew of John Nakagawa, the “Nisei Babe Ruth.” Since its founding, the NBRP has worked to have Japanese American baseball and its pioneers recognized by professional teams, museums, schools, and communities across the US and Japan. Their story has also been told through works like the children’s book Baseball Saved Us, the documentary Diamonds in the Rough, Yuriko Gamo Romer’s short film, Baseball Behind Barbed Wire, and the major motion picture American Pastime.

The 2023 MLB All-Star Week exhibit, Baseball’s Bridge Across the Pacific: Celebrating the Legacy of Japanese American Baseball, continues this preservation work. Through panels, artifacts, and video, the exhibit highlights how Japanese American baseball shaped the game’s globalization and served as a cultural bridge to Asia. It traces the introduction of baseball to Japan in the 1870s, the first Japanese American teams of 1903, and their groundbreaking tours to Asia, which laid the foundation for professional baseball in Japan by 1936. Excluded from major league baseball by prejudice, players who were Japanese emigrants and their descendants, referred to by the term Nikkei, showcased their talent in independent leagues, often against Negro League and Latin American teams. Even during World War II incarceration, they kept the game alive, and in the postwar years, baseball became a vital tool of healing and resilience.

Today’s Asian MLB stars, like Shohei Ohtani, recognize this legacy. “I definitely feel all the history of the guys that came before me who opened the door for me to be able to play over here,” Ohtani said in 2023.19 The exhibit, made possible by the NBRP, the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), and the late Billy Bean (1964–2024), head of MLB’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion office, educates the public about these trailblazers, celebrates their legacy, and advocates for a permanent tribute to Asian American pioneers in baseball history.

The induction of Ichiro Suzuki into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2025, alongside the exhibit Yakyu | Baseball, provided an opportunity to acknowledge this overlooked legacy. However, under current eligibility rules, the Hall’s Classic Baseball Era Committee considers only pre-1980s major leaguers and Negro Leaguers—which excludes Japanese American players. In 2024, the NBRP and JACL proposed expanding eligibility to “individuals from all historically marginalized leagues.” This inclusive rule would allow recognition of figures such as Kenichi Zenimura, Steere Noda, Frank Fukuda, and Cappy Harada, while also honoring other underrepresented groups. Unfortunately, the Hall’s Board of Directors rejected the proposal in February 2025.

Former baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti once said, “We must never lose sight of our history, insofar as it is ugly, never to repeat it, and insofar as it is glorious, to cherish it.”20 Filmmaker Ken Burns echoed the sentiment, reminding us that the national pastime “touches upon race relations, immigration and assimilation, ethnicity, language…as well as being a social barometer of where America has been.”21 Ichiro’s induction, like Jackie Robinson’s in 1962, which prompted renewed recognition of Negro League pioneers, underscores the need to include Nikkei players in baseball’s story. By embracing their contributions, the Hall of Fame will more accurately reflect baseball’s intersection with American history and affirm its values of fairness, equality, and justice.

CONCLUSION

Though largely absent from mainstream recognition, the impact of Japanese American baseball remains visible today—subtle, yet profound. Its legacy is not seen in retired numbers on ballpark walls, but in the names on MLB jerseys. Players of Japanese ancestry, such as Hideo Nomo, Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui, Yu Darvish, Shohei Ohtani, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, owe a debt to the Nikkei pioneers who came before them. By the twenty-first century, the national pastime had become the international pastime, a transformation that stands as the enduring legacy of Japanese American baseball.

KERRY YO NAKAGAWA is an award-winning author, filmmaker, and historian dedicated to preserving Japanese American baseball history. As founder and president of the non-profit Nisei Baseball Research Project (NBRP), he has spent decades documenting these untold stories. Nakagawa authored Through a Diamond: 100 Years of Japanese American Baseball and developed curriculum guides with Stanford University’s SPICE program. As a producer and director, his work includes the award-winning documentary Diamonds in the Rough, created with his godfather, Noriyuki “Pat” Morita, and the narrative feature film American Pastime. A sought-after expert of Nikkei baseball history, Nakagawa has served as a consultant for numerous major exhibits, including the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Baseball As America and Yakyu exhibits, as well as the National Museum of American Jewish History’s Chasing Dreams exhibition.

BILL STAPLES JR. is a SABR member in Arizona with a passion for researching and telling the untold stories of the “international pastime.” He’s a student of Buddhism who examines Nikkei (Japanese American) Leagues, Negro Leagues, and US-Japan baseball history to explore the themes of civil rights, cross-cultural relations, and globalization. His contributions to the SABR Baseball at Manzanar project are dedicated to his good friend Tetsuo Furukawa (1927-2023), who, at age 15, was incarcerated in Rivers, Arizona. Tets was a pitcher and a poet, who in his later years wrote haikus about his wartime experiences: “Red-laced balls and bats / tribute to barbed wire baseball / lucky we have HOPE.” To see the inspiration for Tets’ haiku, visit Nozomi Park in Chandler, Arizona. To learn more about Bill, visit zenimura.com.

 

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted:

Anton, Todd and Bill Nowlin, eds. When Baseball Went to War (Chicago: Triumph Books, 2008).

Fitts, Robert K. Issei Baseball: The Story of the First Japanese American Ballplayers (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2020).

Franks, Joel S. Asian Pacific Americans and Baseball (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2008).

Mukai, Gary. Diamonds in the Rough: Baseball and Japanese-American Internment. Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE), 2004.

Nakagawa, Kerry Yo. Through a Diamond: 100 Years of Japanese American Baseball (San Francisco, California: Rudi Publishing, 2001).

Nelson, Kevin. The Golden Game: The Story of California Baseball (Berkeley, California: Heyday Books, 2004).

Pearce, Ralph. From Asahi to Zebras: Japanese American Baseball in San Jose, California (San Jose, California: Japanese American Museum of San Jose, 2005).

Regalado, Samuel O. Nikkei Baseball: Japanese American Players from Immigration and Internment to the Major Leagues (Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 2013).

Sayama, Kazuo, and Staples Jr., Bill. Gentle Black Giants: A History of Negro Leaguers in Japan (Fresno, California: NBRP Press, 2019).

Staples Jr., Bill. Kenichi Zenimura, Japanese American Baseball Pioneer (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2011).

Thorn, John, “PIONEERS: Larry Lester,” Our Game (blog), April 29, 2024, https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/pioneers-larry-lester-7d917d33c7a7.

 

NOTES

1 Brian Murphy, “Baseball’s Date of Birth in Japan May Have Come in 1860s”,” MLB.com, May 6, 2025, https://www.mlb.com/news/new-date-for-earliest-baseball-in-japan-may-have-been-found.

2 “Japan Against America,” Washington Daily Morning Chronicle, June 5, 1872: 4.

3 “The Japs as Ball Tossers,” Washington Daily National Republican, June 8, 1872: 4.

4 “The Japs in the Field,” Forney’s Sunday Morning Chronicle (Washington DC), June 9, 1872: 4.

5 Bill Kwon, “Asahi Tradition Still Carries On,” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, May 5, 1981: B1.

6 “Travelers, All-Army and P.A.C. Teams Win,” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, December 6, 1915: 13.

7 “Baseball Brevities,” Inter Ocean (Chicago), July 4, 1897: 10.

8 “Japanese for McGraw’s Team,” New York Times, February 10, 1905: 8.

9 “Japanese Players,” The Sporting Life, February 12, 1910: 2.

10 “Around the World with the Giants,” New York Times, January 4, 1914: Sec. 4, 3.

11 “Negroes Uphold Japs on Coast, Declares DuBois,” Kansas City Post, May 19, 1913: 10.

12 Marian L. Smith, “Race, Nationality, and Reality: INS Administration of Racial Provisions in U.S. Immigration and Nationality Law since 1898,” Prologue Magazine, Vol. 34, No. 2, Summer 2002, https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2002/summer/immigration-law-1.

13 “Porterville Would Bar Japanese,” Fresno Bee, February 26, 1924:10.

14 “Tokyo Giants Boasts Several Diamond Stars,” Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner, May 23, 1935, 10.

15 Alec Yoshio MacDonald, “Giants to Celebrate Fuji Athletic Club on Japanese Heritage Night,” Nichi Bei News, May 11, 2023, https://www.nichibei.org/2023/05/giants-to-celebrate-fuji-athletic-club-on-japanese-heritage-night/; Rob Fitts, “Returning Home: The 1914 Seattle Nippon and Asahi Japanese American Tours,” Nichibei Yakyu: US Tours of Japan, 1907-1958 (SABR, 2022), accessed December 8, 2025, https://sabr.org/journal/article/returning-home-the-1914-seattle-nippon-and-asahi-japanese-american-tours/.

16 “Nipponese On Coast Organize a League,” Anaconda (Montana) Standard, May 01, 1910: Sporting Section, 4.

17 Michael Beschloss, “For Incarcerated Japanese-Americans, Baseball Was ‘Wearing the American Flag,’” New York Times, June 21, 2014.

18 Satoshi “Fibber” Hirayama, telephone interview with author, April 1, 2013.

19 Anthony Castrovince, “Japanese Baseball Exhibit Showcases Bridge to Ohtani at ASG,” MLB.com, July 10, 2023, https://www.mlb.com/news/japanese-baseball-history-exhibit-opens-at-all-star-game.

20 Associated Press, “Black Players Remember Good and Bad Days,” Miami Herald, September 25, 1988, 15D.

21 “GM Teams with Ken Burns on Baseball,” SABR Bulletin, 20, November 1990, 6.