Japanese American Baseball in California

Four generations of Japanese Americans broke down racial and cultural barriers in California by playing baseball. Behind the barbed wire of concentration camps during World War II, baseball became a tonic of spiritual renewal for disenfranchised Japanese Americans who played America's pastime while illegally imprisoned. Later, it helped heal resettlement wounds in Los Angeles, San Francisco, the Central Valley and elsewhere. Today, the names of Japanese American ballplayers still resonate as their legacy continues. Mike Lum was the first Japanese American player in the Major Leagues in 1967, Lenn Sakata the first in the World Series in 1983 and Don Wakamatsu the first manager in 2008. Join Kerry Yo Nakagawa in this update of his 2001 classic as he chronicles sporting achievements that doubled as cultural benchmarks.

While coaching his son's little league team in Fresno, California, Kerry Yo Nakagawa was inspired to preserve the legacy of Japanese American baseball and culture for future generations, and that evolved into a full-time non-profit project, the Nisei Baseball Research Project (NBRP), and the previous version of this updated book. The NBRP exhibit "Diamonds in the Rough" has been shown in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, and the Japan Baseball Hall of Fame in Tokyo.