Rebuilding Home Plate - Baseball in Arizona’s Japanese American Incarceration Camps (museum exhibit)

Description

Arizona Heritage Center’s Newest Exhibit Explores How Baseball Served and Saved the Japanese Americans Imprisoned in Arizona’s Incarceration Camps During World War II.

In the early 1900s, Japanese American baseball was a hit across Hawaii and the West Coast among first-generation Japanese Americans and their children. But after Executive Order 9066, Americans of Japanese descent were forced into 10 incarceration camps across the U.S., two of which were in Arizona - Gila River and Poston. Baseball became a way for some to rebuild their homes in the Arizona desert.

Among the items on display are the hand-carved home plate made by the “Father of Japanese American Baseball” Kenichi Zenimura used at the Gila River incarceration camp, the 1943 Butte Camp Tournament Champions banner, the 1921 State Championship Trophy of the Japanese American Fresno Athletic Club, the 2003 MLB All-Star bat used by Ichiro Suzuki, and Yosh Kawano’s signed bucket hat.

“Rebuilding Home Plate” is presented in partnership with the Nisei Baseball Research Project and the Arizona Baseball Legacy and Experience.

Would you like a sneak-peek before the public? Email Kyle Morey for an invitation to a VIP reception on January 25th at 4pm. - kmorey@azhs.gov