Kenichi Zenimura: Japanese American Baseball Pioneer

Bill Staples Jr. Kenichi Zenimura: Japanese American Baseball Pioneer. Jefferson NC: McFarland, 2011. 282 pp. Paper, $40.00. Prior to 1946 Organized Baseball was a white man's game. Barred from the big leagues, African Americans set up their own organizations known as the Negro leagues. This is now common knowledge, and over the last twenty years many of the Negro league stars have taken their rightful place among the pantheon of baseball immortals. But African Americans were not the only group excluded from the majors--Asians were also prevented from participating at the highest level of the national pastime. In response, Japanese and Chinese Americans created their own leagues and teams, challenging teams of all races. Yet, the history and players of these leagues are practically unknown outside their ethnic communities. In Kenichi Zenimura: Japanese American Baseball Pioneer, Bill Staples Jr. tries to correct this omission by chronicling the life of one of the most talented Asian players prevented from fulfilling his dream of playing in the majors. Born in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1900, Kenichi Zenimura moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, when he was seven. Surrounded by Honolulu's flourishing baseball scene, the game soon became Zeni's passion. He played for Mills High School and the famed Japanese-American Asahi club before leaving Hawaii in 1920 to pursue his dream of playing professional baseball on the mainland. Zenimura settled in Fresno, California, and joined the all-Japanese Fresno Athletic Club (FAC). For the next four decades, he would lead the baseball team as a player, captain, coach, and manager. As a semipro team, outside of Organized Baseball, the FAC challenged opponents of all races. They participated in the California Winter League, the California Japanese Baseball League, and took on collegiate, Negro league, and Pacific Coast League teams, as well as barnstorming major leaguers. Zeni developed into one of the top Japanese American players in California, but no offers from professional organizations emerged as anti-Asian sentiment remained strong throughout the country. Despite being ignored by Organized Baseball because of his race, Zenimura championed the game as a tool for mutual understanding and creating goodwill. Later in life, he recalled FAC'S first visit to Livingston, California, in 1923. Signs proclaiming Go Home and No Japs Allowed welcomed his team as they drove to the ballpark. Despite a hostile environment, the FAC played a clean, competitive game and were invited back. Each time the talented Japanese ballplayers returned there were fewer signs until they disappeared altogether. To promote interracial understanding, Zenimura and the FAC organized social events and dances when visiting teams came to Fresno. At a time when whites and blacks rarely interacted socially, it was not unusual for the FAC to throw parties for visiting African American teams. Zenimura also used baseball to foster international understanding. Like many Japanese immigrants, Zeni maintained ties to his birthplace through friends and family. With these connections, he helped organize baseball tours between the two countries. From 1922 to 1937, Zenimura brought three teams to Japan, coached a Japanese high school for a few months, and hosted nine Japanese squads in Fresno. But Zeni's life changed with the attack on Pearl Harbor. The man who had always preached tolerance and tried to combat stereotypes through baseball would have his world turned upside down by racism. With the declaration of war, Japan closed its borders. Japanese Americans stranded in Japan, including Zeni's eldest son Kenji, became eligible for the draft. Kenji would serve against the United States as a pilot in the Imperial Air Force. One can only imagine the father's suffering as the war progressed. In California, Zeni and his family faced their own trials. In February 1942, Executive Order 9066 banished all people of Japanese descent from sensitive areas of the West Coast. …

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