I never post in this forum but I went to a lecture last night that I thought would be worth sharing. The talk was by Rice history professor Sayuri Guthrie-Shimizu. Among the items I learned that I didn't know:
- Contrary to popular (or at least my) belief, baseball was not introduced to Japan during America's post-WWII occupation but as far back as 1872. After the end of Japan's isolationist policies in the mid-19th-century, there was a demand for Western educators. At the same time, there was a supply of Civil War veterans who found themselves lacking opportunities stateside. Among the earlier educators was Gorham, ME native Horace Wilson, who taught baseball to his students.
- To aid the development of the game overseas, in the late 1800's Al Spalding sent free equipment to Japan for a full decade. In addition to equipment, he sent official rules, leading to a surprising synchronicity in game play internationally.
- Among the earliest barnstorming teams to visit Japan were the Philadelphia Bobbies, an all-women's team that played (and beat) men's Japanese teams in 1925, and a Negro Leagues All-Star team in 1927. Major League teams didn't arrive until the 1930s when better stadiums / infrastructure was in place.
- Alexander Cartwright, one of baseball's founding fathers, spent his twilight years in Hawaii and encouraged the growth of the game there.
- Baseball was banned in Japan for a time before and during World War II, seen as American. And one of the first things done post-WWII was to reintroduce the game. Stateside, Japanese-Americans imprisoned in concentration camps formed baseball teams to demonstrate their loyalty to the USA.
- While most American ballplayers were given relatively safe assignments in WWII, Japanese players were given no such preference, and many were killed in action. This led to a dearth in baseball talent in the country, and some Japanese-Americans reverse immigrated to fill the void.