Nikkei Baseball: Japanese American Players from Immigration and Internment to the Major Leagues

6. Barbed Wire Baseball

6 Barbed Wire Baseball Some inland points to settle may roam As leave they must their coastal home The rest of us in turn will enter The barracks at some reception center —“We Shall Meet Again,” Fusaye Obata1 Hey, you guys, take your [baseball] uniforms and whatever you have. —Robert Ohki, on the eve of incarceration, 19422 In the days that followed December 7, 1941, many in Japanese American communitiesweresomberandanticipatedthatevacuationordersmightsoonarrive . Since the attack on Pearl Harbor, rumors abounded about what might happen tothem.Thosewhoknewanythingaboutthecurrentmilitaryleadershipinthe West felt unease about those who sat at the top. John L. DeWitt, the unassuming lieutenant general and head of the Fourth Army, whose held a low level of respect among his peers, commanded the region from his post at the Presidio in San Francisco. Since the Pearl Harbor attack, DeWitt was a picture of uncertainty and routinely issued curfew orders based more on rumors than on hard evidence. Indeed, DeWitt’s erratic management style “was a headquarters at whichconfusionratherthancalmreigned,andthattheconfusionwasgreatestat theverytop.”3 ThroughoutJanuary,thegeneral’sparanoiaalsowasamicrocosm of the events occurring outside his Presidio headquarters. Mainstream newspapers , political operatives, and Caucasian community leaders acted similarly, and some even argued that a Japanese “fifth column” operated in the country’s westernregion.Ashysteriaincreased,theylobbiedstronglyforfederalactionto corral possible saboteurs. In this uneasy environment, DeWitt and other likeRegalado_Text .indd 91 10/24/12 4:54 PM 92 chapter 6 minded military associates deliberated for the sole purpose of convincing the president and congressional members that all ethnic Japanese in the West were a national security risk. United States citizenship, argued DeWitt, carried no weight. “A Jap’s a Jap. . . . You can’t change him by giving him a piece of paper,” the general charged.4 ◆ ◆ ◆ Leaders in the Japanese communities, particularly the Issei, largely recognized the inevitability of their fate. In anticipation of federal crackdowns, many destroyed artifacts and keepsakes that provided cherished memories of their heritage . Along with a Japanese flag, “Papa,” recalled Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston in her book Farewell to Manzanar, “. . . burned a lot of papers too, documents, anythingthatmightsuggesthestillhadsomeconnectionwithJapan.”5 Nisei,on theotherhand,clungtotheirevaporatinghopethatcitizenshipmightsavethem from the peril their elders faced. To that end, at every instance, they exhibited their patriotism to anyone who wished to listen. “We are loyal to the American flag, but race hatreds are being stirred up in a fascist pattern,” announced Larry Tajiri in Los Angeles.6 In the immediate days after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese American Citizens League’s Los Angeles chapter even reached out to Franklin D.Rooseveltforhisthen“fairtreatment”oftheircircumstances.7 Inaclearcase ofdenial,Niseitheredeclaredthat“OurfaiththatAmericansportsmanshipand tolerancewouldtriumphoverhysteriaandmobactioninatimeofwarhasbeen justifiedinthecalmandconsideratetreatmentgiventoAmericancitizensofJapanese ancestry.”8 In further attempts to display their loyalty, the Nisei sponsored variouscivicprograms,suchas“Defense”bowlingtournaments,tocollectmoney forAmericantroops.9 PaulUyemura,directoroftheJACLinLosAngeles,urged Niseitheretocontributeinanymannertheycould.“Don’tbeaslacker.Let’sall of us not in the ranks do our share to help Uncle Sam,” he stated.10 In Seattle, James Sakamoto, the stalwart devotee of Nisei patriotism, saw both his beloved Seattle Japanese American Courier and the sports leagues that he sponsored come to an end in January 1942. Since 1928, athletics had played a large role in the organization’s popularity, drawing thousands of Nisei from throughout the Pacific Northwest to the hundreds of rosters that existed on a year-roundbasis.Moreimportant,Sakamotoandhisassociatejournalists,many ofwhomacquiredinvaluableexperiencewhilewiththeCourier,neverlosttrack oftheworkingprinciplesbehindtheirsupportofathletics:unityandpatriotism. That this display of their virtues on the baseball diamonds, basketball courts, Regalado_Text.indd 92 10/24/12 4:54 PM 93 Barbed Wire Baseball and other athletic venues seemed lost to the mainstream at a time of crisis was greatly disappointing. Instead, the larger presses in their area and throughout the West greeted them with columns that called to attention their race in lieu of their citizenship. Earl Warren, then attorney general of California and who, in later years gained fame as a champion for civil rights during his days as Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, in January 1942 believed that with Nisei, “by and large there is more potential danger” to American national security.11 In another case, historian Roger Daniels revealed that the County Supervisors Association of California pushed forward a resolution to place all Japanese livingintheUnitedStatesinto “concentrationcampsunderthesupervisionofthe federalgovernment.”12 InPortland,Oregon,thecitycouncilgaveitsfullsupport tothisCaliforniaposition.13 Butnotallnon-Japanesewereinlockstepwithsentiments to incarcerate the Nikkei. Writing for the Bainbridge Review, a small daily on Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound near Seattle, Walt Woodward, the paper’s editor, wrote in his column “Plain Talk,” “These Japanese Americans of ours haven’tbombedanybody.Inthepasttheyhavegiveneveryindicationofloyalty to this nation. They have sent, along...