How We Played the Game

How We Played the Game—Baseball at Manzanar 1942-1945

Edited by Russ Speiller and James Forr. Associate editor Bill Nowlin.

On February 19, 1942, not long after the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 granting the secretary of war and his commanders the power to “prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded.”  The order was quickly applied to the more than 120,000 Japanese Americans who lived on the West Coast and were then told to vacate their homes, and were dispersed to one of 10 remote, military-style incarceration camps.

Located near Lone Pine, California, where the summers were hot and dusty, one such camp was the Manzanar War Relocation Center, which operated from 1942 to 1945. Though they were surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers, feeling betrayed by their government, the Japanese Americans incarcerated at Manzanar stood strong as American citizens, holding celebrations for Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July. They endured their desert captivity by building community, which included the construction of baseball and softball diamonds, at one point fielding more than 100 teams.

Within the pages of this book, you won’t find names of legendary American baseball heroes you recognize, like Mickey Mantle or Ken Griffey Jr.  But you will most definitely find American heroes. People such as Rosie (Maruki) Kakuuchi, Pete Mitsui, George Tamura, Jim Morita, and Mary (Matsuno) Miya didn’t just excel at playing ball. They, their families, and other incarcerees excelled at perseverance, having had their lives taken away from them to be detained at Manzanar. They built community in the desert and later, after receiving just $25 upon their release, managed to rebuild their lives.

Paper: 153 pp.

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