Historical Dictionary of United States-Japan ... - Bakumatsu Films

50 • BATTLE OF MIDWAY
Baseball is also very popular in Japan. It is said that in 1871, H. Wilson,
an American teacher in Japan, brought baseball to Japan for the
first time. In 1935, the Tokyo Giants was established as the first professional
baseball team, followed by the Osaka Tigers in the same
year and five other teams in 1936.
In 1905, the Waseda University baseball team visited the United
States as the first Japanese baseball team. In 1908, the University of
Washington baseball team went to Japan as the first mainland American
team to travel to Japan. In 1908, the Reach All-American team, the
first American professional baseball team, stopped in Japan during
their world tour. Although the team consisted mostly of Minor League
(AAA) players, they won all 17 games against Japanese university and
club teams. In 1913, the Chicago White Sox and New York Giants, the
first Major League baseball teams to visit the country, came to Japan
on their Around the World Tour. The teams played two exhibitions
against each other and then played against Keio University. The American
collaborative team made a landslide victory over Keio by a score
of 16-3. In 1922, the Major League Baseball sent an All-Star team to
Japan for the first time. Surprisingly, on 19 November, this team experienced
the only Major League loss in 88 pre–World War II baseball
games in Japan against the Mita Club, consisting of Keio University
alumni. American teams visited Japan eight times before World War II.
The San Francisco Seals, a Minor League team (AAA), came to Japan
for the first time in the post–World War II era in 1949. In the postwar
era, American teams visited Japan 28 times, constantly generating mutual
love for baseball.
Many current and former major leaguers, as well as minor league
players, have joined Japanese professional baseball teams. Nowadays,
however, more and more Japanese players become major leaguers.
The first Japanese major leaguer was Masanori Murakami,
who joined the San Francisco Giants in 1964. Hideo Nomo became
the second Japanese major leaguer in 1995. Now, some Japanese
players are leading major league players such as Nomo, Ichiro
Suzuki, Hideki Matsui, and Tadahito Iguchi.
BATTLE OF MIDWAY (JUNE 1942). Japanese forces met with wild
success in the early stages of the Pacific War. Within weeks of Pearl
Harbor, Japan had captured Guam and Wake Island. Then, in early