Voyage to the Land of the Rising Sun: The Wisconsin Badger Nine’s 1909 Trip to Japan

In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt sent his eldest daughter, Alice, and Secretary of War William Howard Taft on a tour of the Far East, making stops in China, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines. The trip was part of Roosevelt’s plan to act as mediator in the Russo-Japanese War, in the process solidifying the United States’s place in the hierarchy of trading in the Orient. While the visit was successful on both accounts, by the end of the decade, Japan and the United States’s relationship was growing contentious over actions being taken in South Manchuria (China). In essence, the United States was on the brink of being blocked out of Oriental trading by Japan’s South Manchurian train line. Taft, now president, saw an opportunity to work towards an agreement of some kind, where both countries could continue to utilize the area. Hoping that a resolution could be made, Taft saw a prospect for bonding in one of the two nation’s few common grounds—the baseball diamond. The University of Wisconsin-Madison had a series of games planned for the fall in Japan, and Taft wanted to capitalize on the game’s international appeal.

Baseball was one of the University of Wisconsin’s first athletic teams. The first recorded game was played on April 30, 1870, when the university’s team, the Mendotas, thumped the Capital City Club, 53–18. In 1877, a baseball association was formed. By the first decade of the 1900s, the school’s baseball program had become a victim of the game’s nationwide success. Seemingly every club and fraternity on campus was fielding a team. In January 1909, when financial constraints arose, university officials proposed that the intercollegiate team be dropped in favor of skating and intramural baseball. Ultimately, the plan never came to fruition, but the baseball team, under coach Tom Barry, did little to prove its worth, ending with a 4–8 record and a fifth-place finish.

During the tepid 1909 season, Genkwan Shibata, a native of Toyama, Japan, and a decorated student in the university’s commerce program, had been negotiating a series of games between the school team and ball clubs in Japan.¹ “Shibby” worked with Professor Matsuoka of Tokyo’s Keio University (a 1906 alumnus of Wisconsin) to bring the plan to fruition. Just before commencement, it was announced that the university would be sending a baseball team to Japan in the fall for a series of games. To offset some of the cost, Keio helped sponsor the trip, guaranteeing up to four thousand dollars towards Wisconsin’s finances. This was the second time in as many years that an American university had traveled to Japan to play an exhibition series. The previous fall, Waseda University sponsored a trip for the University of Washington.

Due to Barry’s commitments as the head football coach, a replacement baseball coach was sought out. The university didn’t have to look far, turning to part-time political science faculty member Charles McCarthy. The timing couldn’t have been any better for McCarthy, who had recently suffered a self-described “nervous breakdown.”² A renaissance man, he had been steeped in work for the past decade. After obtaining his doctorate in American history from Wisconsin-Madison in 1901, McCarthy helped set up the Wisconsin Legislative Library.³ His knowledge of economics made him a frequent sounding board for President Roosevelt. He remained at the university as a part-time political science lecturer and assistant football coach. He was also heavily involved in the state’s progressive movement and the political movement’s quintessential work, the “Wisconsin Idea.”

As much as McCarthy was involved in politics, he was an athlete at heart. Despite his slight frame, McCarthy had been an All-American fullback and standout punter at Brown University. While attending law school at the University of Georgia, he took over the football coaching duties from Glenn Scobey “Pop” Warner. He coached for two years (1897–98), leading the team to a 6–3 record. When...