From: hiraga@Csli.Stanford.EDU (Yuzuru Hiraga)
Subject: Re: Recommend History Books/Authors?
Organization: Stanford University CSLI
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 10:08:03 GMT

In article <1ir6o3INN7ga@uniwa.uwa.edu.au> keis@psy.uwa.oz.au (Keis Ohtsuka) writes:
>jwb@capek.rdt.monash.edu.au (Jim Breen) writes:
>>I was under the impression that baseball was a post-war (dainijitaisen)
>>arrival. Certainly I can't imagine it being tolerated in the 1930s.
>>Has anyone firmer dates on this?

Sorry, I don't have any firm dates, though I can give some episodes.
The direct answer to Jim's question is no, it was much earlier.

Baseball was introduced to students of ICHI-KOU by foreigners (presumably
Americans) in late 19C or early 20C, and the first game was played
between them (in Yokohama, I think).
ICHI-KOU is the first of the numbered high schools, although not
in the present sense.  Before WWII, junior highs had 5 grades (1 of
which can be skipped for early entrance to high schools), high schools 2,
and (national) universities 3.  High schools of the day correspond
more to current freshman and sophomore grades.
Including private universities and teacher's schools (Shihan-gakkou),
the educational system had more diversity than present.

Baseball soon caught popularity all over, including the long-lasting
rivalry between private universities Keio and Waseda.

>Baseball even predates Meiji Revolution. Kenzaburo Ohe, I believe,
>has a novel based on this episode.

I believe you are talking of "Man-en Gannen no Futtobo^ru"
(Football in the first year of Man-en).
This being the title, I don't think it's related to baseball
(though correct me if I'm wrong; I haven't read it, and you may be
talking of some other novel).

>West Australian or The Australian
>recently (last week) carried an article of Koushien High School Baseball
>Tournament which dates back to 1900.

It's not that old (and again, it was a Junior-high tournament).
Koushien was built in 1924 (this is easy to tell :-) solely for
the tournament, which began a few years earlier.

>Before 1945, high schools in Korea and Taiwan
>sent their delegations to the Koushien HS Baseball Tournament. 

Well, Korea and Taiwan was Japanese territory at that time,
and there were also teams from Manchuria (formally an independent state).

>Indeed, a few of HSs came from the colonies won the championship
>and their school names were inscribed in a monument outside
>the ballpark.

Err... I don't think any of the "colonial" teams won the championship
(again, correct me if I'm wrong).

>It was a quite surprise for me to find out that Koushien
>High School baseball tournament is a sacred national institution that
>trenscends even a petty boundary between the mainland Japan and her
>colonies.  

??? I don't understand.

>During a height of xenophobic hysteria in 1939-45, the
>government tried to force umpires to use native Japanese words for
>"Strike" (Yoshi), "Ball" (Dame) and so forth ...

I'm not sure whether "xenophobic" is the right word.
All use of English, as well as anything reflecting Western (i.e. American)
culture (eg. Jazz!) was banned because they were considered hostile.
(This actually caused some confusion with German (and Italian) related
art -- foolish idea anyway).

>The Koushien HS Baseball Tournament was
>interrupted at the final years of WWII because of a logistic 
>problem and lack of resources to invite HS baseball clubs to
>Koushien ballpark.  

And more importantly, leisure and sports were condemned as being luxurious.

>Baseball is played as an exhibition sport at Olympics since 1984.
>Japan won Gold; USA silver in LA Olympics in 1984. In 1988, USA
>won Gold; Japan silver. At Barcelona, Cuba got Gold, Taiwan won
>a silver medal and Japan had to settle for a bronze after beating
>USA. What a shame for the two countries that regard baseball as their
>respective national institution! 

I won't be that harsh, as Cuba (and Taiwan too, I think) also regard
baseball as their national sport.
And in a formal sense, the national sport of Japan (Kokugi) is sumo.

Some other episodes.
Pro-baseball in Japan was born somewhere in the 30's.
The All-American team at the hype of Yankees' golden age visited
Japan (including Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, among others).
They won all the games, but in one game at Kusanagi, Shizuoka,
a 19-year old rookie named Sawamura Eiji nearly cornered the major
leaguers, though allowed Gehrig a home-run and lost 1-0.
Sawamura led a short but brilliant professional career, but was
later drafted and like many of his colleagues, never came back.
We can imagine a Japanese version of "Field of Dreams" here,
and such sentiment is prevalent among the baseball community.

-Yuzuru Hiraga