num_pages: 368
description: In November 1934 as the United States and Japan drifted toward war a team of American League all-stars that included Babe Ruth Lou Gehrig Jimmie Foxx future secret agent Moe Berg and Connie Mack barnstormed across the Land of the Rising Sun. Hundreds of thousands of fans many waving Japanese and American flags welcomed the team with shouts of  Banzai! Banzai  Babe Ruth! The all-stars stayed for a month playing 18 games spawning professional baseball in Japan and spreading goodwill.Politicians on both sides of the Pacific hoped that the amity generated by the tourand the two nations shared love of the gamecould help heal their growing political differences. But the Babe and baseball could not overcome Japans growing nationalism as a bloody coup dtat by young army officers and an assassination attempt by the ultranationalist War Gods Society jeopardized the tours success. A tale of international intrigue espionage attempted murder and of course baseball Banzai Babe Ruth is the first detailed account of the doomed attempt to reconcile the United States and Japan through the 1934 All American baseball tour. Robert K. Fitts provides a wonderful story about baseball nationalism and American and Japanese cultural history.
language: English
title: Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, and Assassination during the 1934 Tour of Japan
publisher: University of Nebraska Press