Meet four little-known figures who tell the story of early Japanese American baseball

Baseball first came to Japan in 1872, with an American professor named Horace Wilson. He'd been hired by the Japanese government to help modernize the country's education system, and while teaching English at Kaisei Gakko (the forerunner to today's Tokyo University), he decided his students needed a little more physical exercise. He taught his students America's pastime, and soon other American teachers were organizing baseball games as well.  
The game rapidly gained popularity among adults thanks in part to Hiraoka Hiroshi, who studied in New York City and brought his love for America's pastime back with him. He was a Red Sox fan who missed seeing professional teams so much that he organized Japan's first -- the Shinbashi Athletic Club Athletics. Japanese immigrants who came to the US in the early 20th century were already familiar with baseball, and they wasted no time in forming teams of their own.
But before Jackie Robinson broke MLB's color line in 1947, Japanese Americans couldn't play in the Major Leagues. That meant that Japanese immigrants and their American-born children started their own teams and competed for their own championships. The Issei and Nisei Leagues were just as vibrant as other outsider baseball communities, but fewer records of them exist. So, who were some of the athletes, umps and boosters involved? Let's meet a few foundational figures now.
But first, a guide to Japanese American generational terminology
Issei: First generation, born in Japan, emigrated to another country
Nisei: Second generation, born outside of Japan to at least one Issei parent
Sansei: Third generation, born outside of Japan to at least one Nisei parent
(You'll want to know this to clarify some things throughout the post.)
Shohei "Frank" Tsuyuki
Issei teams formed in California as early as 1903, taking on community teams from all over the Bay Area. Frank Tsuyuki helped found a team called the KDC, which stood for Kanagawa-ken Doshi Club. A rough translation of the name: A bunch of guys from Kanagawa … Club. It was the second all-Issei team in the United States.
But in the early days, actually playing the game was fraught. Here's an excerpt from Kerry Yo Nakagawa's "Japanese American Baseball in California."
Larry Tsuyuki would remember his dad telling him, "A lot of these white teams didn't take losing very well. As the game got closer to the end and we were winning, we would start gathering up our equipment, and as soon as the game ended, we would grab our gear and run."
After the Great Depression, Tsuyuki and his family ended up in Monterey County. He had aged out of playing himself, but he became an umpire for the Nisei Leagues that were beginning to emerge along the West Coast.
Setsuo and George Aratani
By the 1920s and '30s, any Japanese American community with nine people who could play ball found themselves with a team. The Northern California Japanese Baseball league fielded eight semi-pro teams, and the Central Valley Independent League had 10 (including the delightfully-named Watsonville Apple Giants). The Nisei Athletic Club played in Hood River, Ore., against white pick-up teams.
Setsuo Aratani played for the Fuji Athletic Club in his youth, the first Issei team in history. By the mid-'20s, he'd left and become a successful lettuce farmer in Guadaloupe, Calif. But he didn't want to give up the sport he loved, so he started a company team.
Two of his employees scouted the rest of their coworkers, and they assembled a multi-ethnic squad. In 1927, Aratani paid for his team, the Guadaloupe Packers, to go on a 15-day goodwill voyage to Japan. He brought along his 10-year-old son, George, and let him pinch-hit in one of the games.
All of that early athletic experience seems to have done him good. As a freshman at Santa Maria High School, he was already a shortstop on the varsity team. In 1932, George's team faced off against Hoover High School for the state championship title. Let's see if you can name the following Hoover High alumnus who also happened to play in that game:

Yes, that's Ted Williams.
In "Japanese American Baseball," George described Williams as "lanky and kind of uncoordinated." In that championship game, The Splendid Splinter struck out three times. Santa Maria won the championship, and the pitcher who struck out Williams, Lester Webber, was drafted by the Dodgers. George was scouted by the Pirates, and he even worked with Honus Wagner at the Bucs' Spring Training -- but he was never signed. After playing ball at Keio University in Japan, he went on to become the founder of Mikasa china and owner of Kenwood Electronics.
Alice Hinaga
Alice Hinaga had three brothers, and they were all ballplayers. Russell and Chickie played for the San Jose Asahi as pitcher and shortstop, respectively. In 1935, Russell even pitched his team to a win over the visiting Tokyo Giants. George, another Hinaga brother, played a year of semi-pro ball with the Vancouver Asahi.
But it was Alice who was a sought-after starting pitcher and cleanup hitter. She once threw a 14-K game against the Pacific Telephone Girls in 1933 and was just one of two Nisei women to play in the Women's Night Ball Association of San Jose. From "Japanese American Baseball," again:  
Growing up, I would always tag along with my brothers, who played baseball every chance they could get. I guess I got pretty good at being with them all the time … At that time there were no Japanese female baseball teams, so played with the white American girls. I was the American version of … Hideo Nomo because I was the only Nisei."
Kenichi Zenimura
They called Kenichi Zenimura the "Dean of the Diamond," and he truly presided over baseball at every level. He played all nine positions and put together barnstorming tours with MLB superstars. Here he is behind the plate. That guy at the plate? Lou Gehrig: 

Zenimura also brought baseball to one of the most inhospitable places imaginable: an internment camp.
When Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 in 1942, hundreds of thousands of people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast were uprooted from their homes and interned in camps in the west, Zenimura among them. Before WWII, he played for the Fresno Athletic Club, but following the order, most of his teammates were sent to a camp in Jerome, Ark. He was separated from them, and ended up in Gila River, Ariz.
Zenimura had already built one ballpark in Fresno, where he'd hosted contests against West Coast Negro League teams and the Pacific Coast League's Salt Lake City Bees, so why not just build another one? He and his sons cleared the ground, and as soon as fellow internees realized what they were doing, they pitched in.
… the internees diverted water from a nearby irrigation ditch and flooded the infield to harden and pack it down. Then they took a three-hundred-foot water line from the laundry room and made a spigot at the back end of the pitcher's mound so that they could have Bermuda grass in the infield and outfield. A castor-bean home run fence was grown, which reached eight to ten feet in height.
Under the cover of night, Zenimura focused on the next step -- building a grandstand. Said one of Zenimura's sons, Harvey:
"We were in Block 28, and the lumberyard was way across the other side of the camp, probably another mile away. We'd go out there in the middle of the night and get lumber and lug it all the way out into the sagebrush, bury it in the desert and then go back later and get it as we needed it. The camp officials probably knew what was going on but nobody said anything."

It's also the ballpark where actor Pat Morita (you know him from the Karate Kid movies) learned to love baseball. He and his family were also interned at Gila River, and it was the first place he saw a live ball game.
After internment, Zenimura coached baseball in Japan and the U.S., and eventually earned the nickname "The Father of Japanese American Baseball." Unfortunately, neither Zenimura or his Nisei League teammates ever made it to the Show. It would take until 1975, when the Cardinals called up Sansei pitcher Ryan Kurosaki, for a Japanese American player to crack the big leagues. 
Nisei League photos courtesy of Kerry Yo Nakagawa and the Nisei Baseball Research Project

seductrice.net
universo-virtual.com
buytrendz.net
thisforall.net
benchpressgains.com
qthzb.com
mindhunter9.com
dwjqp1.com
secure-signup.net
ahaayy.com
tressesindia.com
puresybian.com
krpano-chs.com
cre8workshop.com
hdkino.org
peixun021.com
qz786.com
utahperformingartscenter.org
worldqrmconference.com
shangyuwh.com
eejssdfsdfdfjsd.com
playminecraftfreeonline.com
trekvietnamtour.com
your-business-articles.com
essaywritingservice10.com
hindusamaaj.com
joggingvideo.com
wandercoups.com
wormblaster.net
tongchengchuyange0004.com
internetknowing.com
breachurch.com
peachesnginburlesque.com
dataarchitectoo.com
clientfunnelformula.com
30pps.com
cherylroll.com
ks2252.com
prowp.net
webmanicura.com
sofietsshotel.com
facetorch.com
nylawyerreview.com
apapromotions.com
shareparelli.com
goeaglepointe.com
thegreenmanpubphuket.com
karotorossian.com
publicsensor.com
taiwandefence.com
epcsur.com
mfhoudan.com
southstills.com
tvtv98.com
thewellington-hotel.com
bccaipiao.com
colectoresindustrialesgs.com
shenanddcg.com
capriartfilmfestival.com
replicabreitlingsale.com
thaiamarinnewtoncorner.com
gkmcww.com
mbnkbj.com
andrewbrennandesign.com
cod54.com
luobinzhang.com
faithfirst.net
zjyc28.com
tongchengjinyeyouyue0004.com
nhuan6.com
kftz5k.com
oldgardensflowers.com
lightupthefloor.com
bahamamamas-stjohns.com
ly2818.com
905onthebay.com
fonemenu.com
notanothermovie.com
ukrainehighclassescort.com
meincmagazine.com
av-5858.com
yallerdawg.com
donkeythemovie.com
corporatehospitalitygroup.com
boboyy88.com
miteinander-lernen.com
dannayconsulting.com
officialtomsshoesoutletstore.com
forsale-amoxil-amoxicillin.net
generictadalafil-canada.net
guitarlessonseastlondon.com
lesliesrestaurants.com
mattyno9.com
nri-homeloans.com
rtgvisas-qatar.com
salbutamolventolinonline.net
sportsinjuries.info
wedsna.com
rgkntk.com
bkkmarketplace.com
zxqcwx.com
breakupprogram.com
boxcardc.com
unblockyoutubeindonesia.com
fabulousbookmark.com
beat-the.com
guatemala-sailfishing-vacations-charters.com
magie-marketing.com
kingstonliteracy.com
guitaraffinity.com
eurelookinggoodapparel.com
howtolosecheekfat.net
marioncma.org
oliviadavismusic.com
shantelcampbellrealestate.com
shopleborn13.com
topindiafree.com
v-visitors.net
djjky.com
053hh.com
originbluei.com
baucishotel.com
33kkn.com
intrinsiqresearch.com
mariaescort-kiev.com
mymaguk.com
sponsored4u.com
crimsonclass.com
bataillenavale.com
searchtile.com
ze-stribrnych-struh.com
zenithalhype.com
modalpkv.com
bouisset-lafforgue.com
useupload.com
37r.net
autoankauf-muenster.com
bantinbongda.net
bilgius.com
brabustermagazine.com
indigrow.org
miicrosofts.net
mysmiletravel.com
selinasims.com
spellcubesapp.com
usa-faction.com
hypoallergenicdogsnames.com
dailyupdatez.com
foodphotographyreviews.com
cricutcom-setup.com
chprowebdesign.com
katyrealty-kanepa.com
tasramar.com
bilgipinari.org
four-am.com
indiarepublicday.com
inquick-enbooks.com
iracmpi.com
kakaschoenen.com
lsm99flash.com
nana1255.com
ngen-niagara.com
technwzs.com
virtualonlinecasino1345.com
wallpapertop.net
casino-natali.com
iprofit-internet.com
denochemexicana.com
eventhalfkg.com
medcon-taiwan.com
life-himawari.com
myriamshomes.com
nightmarevue.com
healthandfitnesslives.com
androidnews-jp.com
allstarsru.com
bestofthebuckeyestate.com
bestofthefirststate.com
bestwireless7.com
britsmile.com
declarationintermittent.com
findhereall.com
jingyou888.com
lsm99deal.com
lsm99galaxy.com
moozatech.com
nuagh.com
patliyo.com
philomenamagikz.net
rckouba.net
saturnunipessoallda.com
tallahasseefrolics.com
thematurehardcore.net
totalenvironment-inthatquietearth.com
velislavakaymakanova.com
vermontenergetic.com
kakakpintar.com
jerusalemdispatch.com
begorgeouslady.com
1800birks4u.com
2wheelstogo.com
6strip4you.com
bigdata-world.net
emailandco.net
gacapal.com
jharpost.com
krishnaastro.com
lsm99credit.com
mascalzonicampani.com
sitemapxml.org
thecityslums.net
topagh.com
flairnetwebdesign.com
rajasthancarservices.com
bangkaeair.com
beneventocoupon.com
noternet.org
oqtive.com
smilebrightrx.com
decollage-etiquette.com
1millionbestdownloads.com
7658.info
bidbass.com
devlopworldtech.com
digitalmarketingrajkot.com
fluginfo.net
naqlafshk.com
passion-decouverte.com
playsirius.com
spacceleratorintl.com
stikyballs.com
top10way.com
yokidsyogurt.com
zszyhl.com
16firthcrescent.com
abogadolaboralistamd.com
apk2wap.com
aromacremeria.com
banparacard.com
bosmanraws.com
businessproviderblog.com
caltonosa.com
calvaryrevivalchurch.org
chastenedsoulwithabrokenheart.com
cheminotsgardcevennes.com
cooksspot.com
cqxzpt.com
deesywig.com
deltacartoonmaps.com
despixelsetdeshommes.com
duocoracaobrasileiro.com
fareshopbd.com
goodpainspills.com
hemendekor.com
kobisitecdn.com
makaigoods.com
mgs1454.com
piccadillyresidences.com
radiolaondafresca.com
rubendorf.com
searchengineimprov.com
sellmyhrvahome.com
shugahouseessentials.com
sonihullquad.com
subtractkilos.com
valeriekelmansky.com
vipasdigitalmarketing.com
voolivrerj.com
worldhealthstory.com
zeelonggroup.com
1015southrockhill.com
10x10b.com
111-online-casinos.com
191cb.com
3665arpentunitd.com
aitesonics.com
bag-shokunin.com
brightotech.com
communication-digitale-services.com
covoakland.org
dariaprimapack.com
freefortniteaccountss.com
gatebizglobal.com
global1entertainmentnews.com
greatytene.com
hiroshiwakita.com
iktodaypk.com
jahatsakong.com
meadowbrookgolfgroup.com
newsbharati.net
platinumstudiosdesign.com
slotxogamesplay.com
strikestaruk.com
techguroh.com
trucosdefortnite.com
ufabetrune.com
weddedtowhitmore.com
12940brycecanyonunitb.com
1311dietrichoaks.com
2monarchtraceunit303.com
601legendhill.com
850elaine.com
adieusolasomade.com
andora-ke.com
bestslotxogames.com
cannagomcallen.com
endlesslyhot.com
iestpjva.com
ouqprint.com
pwmaplefest.com
qtylmr.com
rb88betting.com
buscadogues.com
1007macfm.com
born-wild.com
growthinvests.com
promocode-casino.com
proyectogalgoargentina.com
wbthompson-art.com
whitemountainwheels.com
7thavehvl.com
developmethis.com
funkydogbowties.com
travelodgegrandjunction.com
gao-town.com
globalmarketsuite.com
blogshippo.com
hdbka.com
proboards67.com
outletonline-michaelkors.com
kalkis-research.com
thuthuatit.net
buckcash.com
hollistercanada.com
docterror.com
asadart.com
vmayke.org
erwincomputers.com
dirimart.org
okkii.com
loteriasdecehegin.com
mountanalog.com
healingtaobritain.com
ttxmonitor.com
nwordpress.com
11bolabonanza.com