[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 4 (Monday, February 2, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S278]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page S278]]
          CONTRIBUTIONS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN BASEBALL PLAYERS

 Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to a group of 
Americans that contributed greatly to the game of baseball. Although 
not widely known in this country, the Japanese American community has 
contributed a significant chapter to the history of baseball as it has 
to many other important aspects of American society.
  Beginning at the turn of the 20th century, Issei, or first generation 
Japanese Americans, developed a love for baseball that led to the 
creation of an extensive network of Japanese American leagues 
throughout the United States. Japanese American baseball leagues began 
to appear in towns and cities throughout Hawaii and the western 
continental United States. The popularity of baseball spread to the 
point where there was a team in nearly every Japanese American farming 
community.
  By the 1920's, more than 100 teams had been formed consisting 
primarily of talented Nisei, or second generation Japanese Americans. 
Because of the discrimination and forced segregation of the time, the 
Nisei teams, like the teams in the Negro Leagues and in the All-
American Girls Professional Baseball Leagues, played mostly against 
each other. However, they also successfully compete against high 
school, college, and semi-professional teams from white America, teams 
from the Negro Leagues, and even against baseball legends such as Babe 
Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, Jackie Robinson, and Joe DiMaggio.
  In 1937, all-star teams consisting of Nisei players from California 
traveled to Japan, Korea, and Manchuria as ambassadors of goodwill. The 
Nisei teams competed throughout Asia where they impressed audiences 
with their talented play, sportsmanship, and aggressive style of fast-
paced American baseball. However, the outbreak of World War II abruptly 
ended their overseas campaign as ambassadors of American goodwill. In 
the following months, many of these players and their families, because 
of their race, became the object of suspicion and mistrust in their own 
country.
  The serene life of farming and playing baseball ended abruptly with 
the announcement of Executive Order 9066. More than 120,000 Japanese 
Americans were relocated to remote internment camps across the United 
States. In an effort to preserve a sense of community and improve the 
living conditions of the interment camps, Japanese Americans set 
about recreating many of the social networks and clubs that were an 
integral part of their lives prior to their internment. For many of the 
younger Japanese Americans this meant banding together and forming 
baseball leagues that played several seasons behind barbed-wire fences.

  For Japanese Americans interned during World War II, playing, 
watching and supporting baseball was an important reprieve from the 
harsh nature of camp life. Popular Japanese American baseball players, 
such as Kenichi Zenimura, made it a mission to bring baseball to the 
internment camps. He and the Japanese American community worked 
tirelessly to build makeshift baseball stadiums where, for several 
hours each week, Japanese American communities could forget their 
worries and enjoy their worries and enjoy their favorite American 
pastime. For the many Japanese Americans who participated in the 
baseball leagues and the thousands who watched and supported the teams, 
the baseball leagues helped to rebuild a sense of civic pride and 
dignity which had greatly suffered as a result of their forced 
internment.
  In the post-war years, Japanese American baseball players took up 
their former role as ambassadors of goodwill and began traveling across 
the Pacific to play exhibiting games in Japan. In addition, prominent 
Japanese American baseball players, like Tsuneo ``Cappy'' Harada, 
contributed to the explosion of baseball's popularity in Japan by 
bringing famous Americans such as Lefty O'Doul and Joe DiMaggio to 
Japan for exhibitions and public appearances. These efforts by Harada 
and other greatly contributed to the internationalization of baseball 
as a professional sport and the popularity of baseball in Japan. The 
current practice of playing exhibition games in both American and Japan 
was started by Japanese American baseball players and provides 
opportunities for both American and Japanese players to compete in each 
other's countries. In recent years, American Cecil Fielder played for 
the Hanshin Tigers in Japan's Central League, while Japanese players, 
like Hideo Nomo, have competed for American teams. In addition, 
American and Japanese All-Star teams regularly compete in Japan.
  In spite of this rich tradition and history, the popularity of the 
Nisei Baseball Leagues gradually waned as discrimination and 
segregation faded in American society. By the 1970's the leagues had 
almost completely disappeared. However, the important contributions of 
Japanese American baseball players had, in recent years, been 
rediscovered for the benefit of all Americans. Historical exhibits, 
like ``Diamonds in the Rough: Japanese Americans in Baseball,'' which 
have traveled to many sites throughout the United States, have brought 
to the public's attention the important role Japanese Americans played 
in baseball's history. In addition, many younger Japanese Americans, 
have begun to participate in the historic Japanese American baseball 
leagues again.
  It is a great privilege to bring to the attention of the Congress and 
the American people the important contributions of the Japanese 
American baseball players. From their early days playing in segregated 
Japanese American leagues to their more recent role as promoters of 
baseball around the world, they have consistently demonstrated an 
incredible ability to overcome adversity and make the most of 
opportunities in even the most difficult of circumstances. In light of 
their many accomplishments, I am honored to commemorate the Japanese 
American baseball players today.

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