When did baseball invade Japan

[spence]

I was watching a Victory At Sea DVD recently and I noticed some Japanese aircrew at some South Pacific airbase in one of the film clips were playing (American) Baseball. I always thought that the popularity of baseball in Japan was a result of the American Occupation of Japan after WW2. Guess not though. So does anybody know when baseball got introduced to Japan?

[Cuttlefish]

I don't know when the Japanese first started playing baseball, but their first professional teams were formed around the mid-1930's (I think - I am going from memory here). By the time WWII started they had a major league of 8 teams. The Japanese made the same decision Roosevelt made, to keep baseball going during the war for morale purposes. They finally stopped playing in mid-1944.

I do know, from recent research, that while 2 American major league players died in the war (and 110 minor league players) at least 69 Japanese major leaguer players were killed.

[Mike Scholl]

It was definately established there by the 20's, as American "Barnstormers" were making the trip on a regular basis by the early 30's. Would be interesting to find out just how it was introduced. Don't think it was with Perry, as it was still developing in America in the 1850's...

[JeffroK]

The sport of baseball was introduced to Japan in 1872 by Horace Wilson, and the first formal team was established in 1878
 
(Give or take 50 years, its from Wikipedia)

[m10bob]

The 1928 Yankees gave exhibition games in Japan and the locals knew the game then.

[Ian R]

Isn't it odd that the Japanese, who seem to copy many American sports and fashion/music fads, ended up on the wrong side of a war with them.

[DuckofTindalos]

That's what happens when a small militaristic elite controls stuff...

[okami]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

That's what happens when a small militaristic elite controls stuff...

I wouldn't call Roosevelt militaristic.[:D]

[DuckofTindalos]

[8|]

[Ike99]

Japan went baseball crazy after Babe Ruth went there and played in some exhibitions.

[jwilkerson]

ORIGINAL: Ike99

Japan went baseball crazy after Babe Ruth went there and played in some exhibitions.

Well sounds like we had a pile of guesses and bad guesses - but if the Babe Ruth answer is correct is there any more data on this? Like when did he go - and when did the Japanese first form anything like a league?

We certainly see news reels from the thirties of Japanese playing baseball - and history records the "militarists" actually cracked down against "Western Decadence" right before the start of WWII.

I don't want this thread to go political but a bit of real history on the topic on certainly be - on topic.
[:)]

[rtrapasso]

Wiki had this "His participation in an all-star tour of Japan in 1934 sparked that country's rabid interest in professional baseball; a decade later, Japanese soldiers seeking the ultimate insult for American troops would sometimes shout, "To hell with Babe Ruth!"[2]"

and

"After the 1934 season, Ruth went on a baseball barnstorming tour in the Far East. Players such as Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Gomez, Earl Averill, Charlie Gehringer, and Lou Gehrig were among 14 players who played a series of 22 games, with many of the games played in Japan. Ruth was quite popular in Japan, as baseball had been popular in Japan for decades. Riding in a motorcade, Ruth was greeted by thousands of cheering Japanese people. The tour was considered a great success for further increasing the popularity of baseball in Japan, and in 1936 Japan organized its first professional baseball league."

[Cuttlefish]

The following is from Jim Allen's Japanese Baseball Page. Allen is a journalist who used to write a Bill James-style statistical abstract for Japanese baseball. The only addition that I have to make to the article below is that the first organized teams were associated with railroads because the game was introduced to Japan by men who had gone to America to study the railroad system there.

[font="Times New Roman"]Brief History of Japanese Baseball

Japanese Baseball has existed in Japan since 1873. It first appeared amid the social, cultural and technological spasms Japan endured on the heels of the Meiji restoration. The game began as a club sport; Japan's first team was the Shinbashi Athletic Club Athletics (composed mostly of people associated with Japan's first railroad which ran from Shinbashi, in Tokyo, to the recently established treaty port of Yokohama). For a relatively good treatment of Japan's early baseball history see Robert Whiting's "You've Gotta Have Wa," (Chapter 2).

The sport became popular with schoolboys and eventually won recognition from the government. Amateur baseball was the only game in Japan until the Shibaura Club was organized in the early 1920s. The Shibaura Club was founded in Shibaura, Tokyo and eventually ended up playing in Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture under the sponsorship of the Hankyu railroad. Eventually the club foundered in Takarazuka as well.

In 1934, the Yomiuri Shimbun organized another professional team, Dai Nippon. After a 1935 North American tour, Dai Nippon was renamed the Giants. Soon, other teams were formed. In 1936, Japan took the big step. In April, Japan's first professional "season" began at Koshien Kyujo near Osaka. Six teams, not including the Giants, took part in three Spring tournaments played in Koshien, Narumi Kyujo (in Nagoya) and Takarazuka near Osaka. The Tigers won the spring league with five wins and four losses.

This was not to be an anomaly. From 1936 to 1939, the Tigers were the best team in Japanese pro baseball. It was not until 1939 that their chief rivals, the Giants, began to dominate. In 1939, the schedule was changed from a split season (spring and fall) to a single 96 game season. The next season (1940), the schedule was expanded to 104 games. In 1939 and 1940, the Japanese league consisted of nine teams.

The league's season changed somewhat after that. Each team played at least 84 games in 1941. In 1942, the war in China spread to the rest of the Pacific. In spite of the continuing escalation of the war, the 1942 schedule went back to 104 games. In 1943, the schedule reverted to 84 games. In 1944, the schedule was drastically reduced to 35 games and only six teams. The 1945 season was never played. Within nine months of the beginning of the Allied occupation, Japan's pro leagues were back in business with eight teams playing 105 games each.[/font]

[Tomo]

Sawamura vs Babe Ruth
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=C5ITy9_VwR4

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=6k7WE6WsnoU