The Japanese-Canadian boys and men of the Asahi baseball club were worshiped as gods. Like the Yankees, theirs was a winning dynasty with its own signature style and strategy.
Any athlete skilled enough to wear the emblematic "A" of the red and white jersey earned himself a coveted position that came with respect, admiration and a history of athletic prestige dating to 1914.
The only ethnic, non-Caucasian team to play in many different leagues, immigrant issei and naturalized, Canadian-born nisei Japanese-Canadians built a forward-thinking program that developed farm teams based at mill sites along the B.C. coast and also formed a boys development program that could have competed in Little League if they'd been welcome.
The senior Asahi team wasn't initially invited to join the men's city league when it formed after the First World War. And the Terminal League folded in 1937 after the Asahi withdrew and took their hundreds of 10cent-paying spectators with them.
The Asahi, which translates to "rising sun," played a precise game called "brain ball" that emphasized bunting, stealing and speed as well as sound defense. (A former player said one batter was so exact, "He could bunt with a chopstick wherever he wanted to.")
Jari Osborne's documentary Sleeping Tigers observed that the Asahi's cohesive effort and emphasis on teamwork resonated with an important Japanese concept of cooperation and group philosophy.
"You couldn't hit the ball through the infield past them, they were just like cats onto it," Al Moser, an opposing pitcher with the Downtown Patricia's, said in the film. Moser, six-foottwo, towered over the Asahi, who averaged closer to five-foot-two.
"If they did bunt, they were fast as heck. They were thieves," he said, admiringly. "They'd win a game 3-1 and never have one hit."
In the years between the wars, those young men couldn't have known that such an esteemed lineage didn't include a future-not, at least, the continuation of the active ball team that won the Terminal League three years running and topped the Pacific Northwest League five years in a row from 1937 to 1941.
The Asahi played their last game in Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»70 years ago on Sept. 18, 1941.
Their triumph turned to tragedy later that year in December when Japan began its Pacific military offensive, and the U.S. along with Canada and the entire Commonwealth responded by declaring war against the country. Many of B.C.'s roughly 20,000 Japanese-Canadians, most of whom lived in Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»and the city's Little Tokyo, were immediately herded to the Hastings Park exhibition grounds where men, women and children awaited their fate amid the odour of barnyard animals. Their property, businesses and homes were confiscated and eventually sold. These Canadians, who could not vote until 1948, were sent to abandoned mining sites, ghost towns, work camps and other villages in B.C.'s interior where they lived for the next four years. Although teammates were separated, the Asahi spirit persisted and ball diamonds were built so skilled and unskilled played together. At the end of the Second World War, these families were prohibited from returning to Vancouver. They could move east of the Rockies or repatriate to Japan, an unknown foreign country for many of these Canadians.
The Asahi story is increasingly well known across Canada. In 2003, the amateur baseball franchise was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. Two years later, the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame bestowed them the same honour and the Japanese Canadian National Museum, located in Burnaby, opened its excellent and definitive exhibit on the Asahi, Levelling the Playing Field.
Grace Eiko Thomson, who curated the Asahi exhibit, said this Canadian baseball story cannot be told without recognizing the racism the players and many Japanese-Canadians endured.
By way of an inelegant but tame example, English-language newspapers heralded the "nimble little men of the Rising Sun," who showed "Japan is not only famous for its rice and cherry blossoms."
In this atmosphere of couched xenophobia and cultural segregation, Thomson said players chose as a response sportsmanship and fair play-even when they felt umpires more than once threw a game by deliberately making the wrong call to favour the white opposition.
"These are young men and they are going home exhilarated they won the championship," said Thomson, "but coming home to read the paper, while they feel great that they are being praised for their sport and skill and performance, in the same article they are reading that they're not Canadian."
Kaye Kaminishi, 89, one of three surviving members of the Asahi, said, "Those days, there was a quiet antiAsian influence. Not only on Japanese but all Asian people. We suffered quite a bit, you see," he said. Speaking to the Courier from Kamloops, where he settled after his family was relocated from Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»to Lilooet, Kaminishi said with a laugh, "But we always just played fair. We didn't argue too much. We were told not to argue with the umpire. Sometimes, we just kept quiet. It was difficult for awhile but we had to do that."
On Sunday, seven decades after the Asahi played their final game, one they lost 7-3, their skill, status and, most poignantly, their sacrifice will be formally recognized by the placement of a commemorative plaque at Powell Grounds, now Oppenheimer Park, the site of the ball diamond at the heart of Little Tokyo.
The Asahi are recognized for their immeasurable contributions to the enjoyment, excitement and hope for Japanese-Canadian living on the Pacific Coast. Significantly, their athletic achievements are highlighted.
"[Their] signature offensive strategy, 'brain ball,' emphasized bunting and speed on the bases, reflected the values of discipline and team work, and, coupled with a sparkling defense, levelled the playing field with more powerful opponents."
For the last five years, the Japanese Canadian National Museum has organized a tribute game of non-competitive softball in honour of the Asahi. They play Sept. 18, 11 a.m. at Oppenheimer Park following the plaque presentation by the Minister of International Cooperation, Bev Oda, at 9: 30 a.m.
Kaminishi will throw the opening pitch.
Twitter: @MHStewart
