Nikkei Baseball

Please join us on Saturday, June 3 from 1:00–2:30pm for a presentation by Kerry Yo Nakagawa, a baseball historian and author. The presentation will focus on the pre-war American Japanese early tours to Japan, Korea and China. These American Ambassadors helped to spark professional baseball in Japan in 1936. During WWII they kept the all-American Pastime alive, even from behind barbed wire. All Star players Ichiro, Shohei Ohtani and others are standing on the shoulders of these prewar Nikkei ballplayers.

Kerry is the author of Through a Diamond, 100 Years of Japanese American Baseball and  A History of Japanese American Baseball in California. He is the project director of the non-profit Nisei Baseball Research Project, (NBRP), founding curator of Diamonds in the Rough international exhibit and produced curriculums with SPICE at Stanford University. He also produced/directed Diamonds in the Rough documentary with his Godpapa Noriyuki ‘Pat’ Morita and other multiple documentaries. He produced the dramatic narrative award winning film, American Pastime. He was a consultant to the hall of fame exhibit Baseball As America with Buck O’Neil and the Chasing Dreams exhibit with the National Museum of American Jewish History.

If you have any questions, please contact us at jacl93940@gmail.com