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Wally Yonamine: The Man Who Changed Japanese Baseball
Wally Yonamine was both the first Japanese American to play for an NFL franchise and the first American to play professional baseball in Japan after World War II. This is the unlikely story of how a shy young man from the sugar plantations of Maui overcame prejudice to integrate two professional sports in two countries.
In 1951 the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants chose Yonamine as the first American to play in Japan during the Allied occupation. He entered Japanese baseball when mistrust of Americans was high—and higher still for Japanese Americans whose parents had left the country a generation earlier. Without speaking the language, he helped introduce a hustling style of base running, shaking up the game for both Japanese players and fans. Along the way, Yonamine endured insults, dodged rocks thrown by fans, initiated riots, and was threatened by yakuza (the Japanese mafia). He also won batting titles, was named the 1957 MVP, coached and managed for twenty-five years, and was honored by the emperor of Japan. Overcoming bigotry and hardship on and off the field, Yonamine became a true national hero and a member of Japan’s Baseball Hall of Fame.
In 1951 the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants chose Yonamine as the first American to play in Japan during the Allied occupation. He entered Japanese baseball when mistrust of Americans was high—and higher still for Japanese Americans whose parents had left the country a generation earlier. Without speaking the language, he helped introduce a hustling style of base running, shaking up the game for both Japanese players and fans. Along the way, Yonamine endured insults, dodged rocks thrown by fans, initiated riots, and was threatened by yakuza (the Japanese mafia). He also won batting titles, was named the 1957 MVP, coached and managed for twenty-five years, and was honored by the emperor of Japan. Overcoming bigotry and hardship on and off the field, Yonamine became a true national hero and a member of Japan’s Baseball Hall of Fame.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 13, 2024
I'm actually inclined to give this book a 3.5-star review but that is not possible here.
It is chock-full of historical facts and records, even to a fault - the storyline sometimes takes a back seat to superfluous detail about game results.
On the whole, it is extremely informative, but not so much about how Yonamine impacted Japanese baseball, which is what I was hoping. It was more like a year-by-year look back at his playing career, then a rush through his coaching life in Japan.
I suppose if Yonamine had played for the Hanshin Tigers (my team) instead of the Yomiuri Giants (the much-hated rival), I would have lapped every word up like a thirsty dog, but alas, the book painted the Tigers (and especially its fans) in a somewhat negative light at times. I do not doubt the veracity of the claims of fans throwing stuff at players or even rushing the field on occasion, but it made those parts of the book less enjoyable to read.
If you are serious about learning this corner of Japanese baseball history, then this book will be a joy for you to read. But for the casual fan that is curious about NPB or the Giants or whatever, I think there might be better books you could start with than this one.
It is chock-full of historical facts and records, even to a fault - the storyline sometimes takes a back seat to superfluous detail about game results.
On the whole, it is extremely informative, but not so much about how Yonamine impacted Japanese baseball, which is what I was hoping. It was more like a year-by-year look back at his playing career, then a rush through his coaching life in Japan.
I suppose if Yonamine had played for the Hanshin Tigers (my team) instead of the Yomiuri Giants (the much-hated rival), I would have lapped every word up like a thirsty dog, but alas, the book painted the Tigers (and especially its fans) in a somewhat negative light at times. I do not doubt the veracity of the claims of fans throwing stuff at players or even rushing the field on occasion, but it made those parts of the book less enjoyable to read.
If you are serious about learning this corner of Japanese baseball history, then this book will be a joy for you to read. But for the casual fan that is curious about NPB or the Giants or whatever, I think there might be better books you could start with than this one.
February 5, 2016
Didn't finish, unfortunately... I got caught up reading Space books, and time for this one to go back to the library. Nevertheless, comfortable recommending it - if you're into baseball and/or Hawaiian men, it makes sense to try to track this down rather than waiting for Shane Victorino's biography.
My favorite baseball books allow me to learn something new about a distant time or place, and the backdrop here - the experience of Japanese-Americans in California and Hawaii during and just after WWII - is especially compelling. (Yonamine was also Okinawan, which adds another layer of prejudice and non-linearity to the story.) I haven't got to the part yet where he moves to Japan - I'm sure that's good too.
Even though this book comes from the same publisher as Fitts' excellent Mashi: The Unfulfilled Baseball Dreams of Masanori Murakami, the First Japanese Major Leaguer, it doesn't share that book's copious footnoting and relatively academic tone. Oddly, I kind of missed some of the awkwardness.
My favorite baseball books allow me to learn something new about a distant time or place, and the backdrop here - the experience of Japanese-Americans in California and Hawaii during and just after WWII - is especially compelling. (Yonamine was also Okinawan, which adds another layer of prejudice and non-linearity to the story.) I haven't got to the part yet where he moves to Japan - I'm sure that's good too.
Even though this book comes from the same publisher as Fitts' excellent Mashi: The Unfulfilled Baseball Dreams of Masanori Murakami, the First Japanese Major Leaguer, it doesn't share that book's copious footnoting and relatively academic tone. Oddly, I kind of missed some of the awkwardness.
April 22, 2025
This is a biography of Wally Yonamine, who was a Hall of Fame star baseball player and manager in the Nippon Professional Baseball leagues in the '50s, '60s, and '70s. Yonamine was as a Nisei Japanese American from Hawaii (Nisei meaning ethnically Japanese persons born in the United States to Japanese-born immigrants). Although ethnically Japanese, in Japan he was still seen as a gaijin, a foreigner. I didn't realize this when I got the book, but after reading it, I've come to understand that this provides most of what's meaningful in the book.
Yonamine being born to Japanese immigrants and being raised during the Post-War era in the US is really what makes the first few chapters worth reading. They're really about coming of age with a foot in two cultures, but never really being fully planted in each. And that each of those cultures were based from counties that were at war in the recent past makes the situation more complex. The complexity doesn't go away when Yonamine becomes a professional athlete and moves to Japan with his family once he becomes a young man. What makes this book meaningful is his navigation of cultures, expectations, traditions, and relationships throughout his life. That is what makes this book worth reading. I got a lot of insight from the chapters that really dealt with that more so.
Once I got the middle section of the book, the chapters that cover most of Yonamine's professional star seasons in the Japanese leagues, things started to get boring. The author did his research, but he really gets bogged down in season-by-season recaps, which strays away from a lot of the insightful human elements of the biography. I started to become less interested in what was going on and my interest waned. It just became an athlete's biography at that point. Luckily, once Yonamine retired from his playing career, the story starts to get back into Yonamine's personal experiences.
This book gives good background information on the historic Japanese and American relationships post-war and mid-century. There's also some good information on the Japanese leagues, their history, and what they were like before the there was much interaction between the American leagues and those overseas. It's a more worldly view of the game that what we're normally used to seeing. This book is worth reading for those points.
Yonamine being born to Japanese immigrants and being raised during the Post-War era in the US is really what makes the first few chapters worth reading. They're really about coming of age with a foot in two cultures, but never really being fully planted in each. And that each of those cultures were based from counties that were at war in the recent past makes the situation more complex. The complexity doesn't go away when Yonamine becomes a professional athlete and moves to Japan with his family once he becomes a young man. What makes this book meaningful is his navigation of cultures, expectations, traditions, and relationships throughout his life. That is what makes this book worth reading. I got a lot of insight from the chapters that really dealt with that more so.
Once I got the middle section of the book, the chapters that cover most of Yonamine's professional star seasons in the Japanese leagues, things started to get boring. The author did his research, but he really gets bogged down in season-by-season recaps, which strays away from a lot of the insightful human elements of the biography. I started to become less interested in what was going on and my interest waned. It just became an athlete's biography at that point. Luckily, once Yonamine retired from his playing career, the story starts to get back into Yonamine's personal experiences.
This book gives good background information on the historic Japanese and American relationships post-war and mid-century. There's also some good information on the Japanese leagues, their history, and what they were like before the there was much interaction between the American leagues and those overseas. It's a more worldly view of the game that what we're normally used to seeing. This book is worth reading for those points.
June 10, 2013
My only issue with the book is that the author spends too much time going into certain game-by-game stories that sometimes have little insight to offer. They just elongate the narrative and put into five pages could have perfectly been told in one or two.
Wally Yonamine was a very interesting character and his story is worthy being told. Robert Fitts did a very good job bringing it to life. Obviously this is a book for hardcore baseball fans. If you like baseball and you have an interest in the development of the sport in areas beyond the US borders; there is a lot you can soak in from this quick read.
Wally Yonamine was a very interesting character and his story is worthy being told. Robert Fitts did a very good job bringing it to life. Obviously this is a book for hardcore baseball fans. If you like baseball and you have an interest in the development of the sport in areas beyond the US borders; there is a lot you can soak in from this quick read.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews