Quite a while ago, I saw this Pearls Before Swine comic strip in the Star Advertiser but didn't have a story to post it with.
We were having our weekly Starbucks drink after finishing our mall walk with friends one morning.
The Dodgers had won their 2nd World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays. Art was very happy the Dodgers won even though he had to send his $1.00 bet to our son overseas.
I forget when Keola lost the bet and sent this foreign currency to Art.
Anyway, there we were with our friend, Dave (who is not Japanese) who smiled and said, "Isn't it pretty amazing that Japanese-Americans were once put in Internment camps and now 3 Japanese players are World Series winners?"
In fact Yoshinobu Yamamoto was even given the MVP title.
Yup... Pretty amazing.
Dave went on to say, "Did you know that baseball was big in the Internment camps? In fact, they all had baseball leagues competing against each other?"
No, I didn't know. I do know some friends and relatives who were incarcerated in Internment camps on the mainland. We even had an Internment camp here on Oahu called Honouliuli.
I looked it up online and found this book.
I guess baseball was big in the camps and helped to keep spirits up at a time when it felt the country was against them even though they were Americans.
But now we are happily celebrating the triumphs of 3 Japanese players who helped the Dodgers win the World Series.
But then we're hearing from our daughter in Chicago about ICE raids. She sent us this photo taken safely (she reassured me) on her way to work.
Time has a way of changing our perspectives. I sometimes ponder what people of 80 years from now will be aghast at what we find acceptable now.
ReplyDeleteIt is still NOT acceptable to me.
DeleteWhat is not acceptable to you? I’m not sure I’m following you.
DeleteI saved that "Pearls" (of wisdom) too - our niece teaches high school civics and spends a week later in the school year on WW2 internment camps. And she will love the baseball link, if she doesn't already know about it!
ReplyDeleteSo thank you!
Ceci
When I was a boy, it often seemed to be the Dodgers and Yankees in the WS. I usually cheered for the Dodgers, but I hoped for the Blue Jays this time — for obvious reasons.
ReplyDeleteWe came so far from that terrible time. I am so sad we are moving backwards.
ReplyDeleteIt is heartbreaking to me as well.
DeleteWhat an exciting World Series…so, so proud of those Japanese boys.
ReplyDeleteMy mother in law and her family were taken from their home in Sacramento and sent to Arkansas. What our administration is doing scares me, as a non white person, as I can clearly see how this can happen again.
Kay of Musings: I agree with you 100%, of course. That is so awful about your mother-in-law’s family. I didn’t even know about my uncle’s family history. His dad and brother were sent to Honouliuli before being sent off to a mainland Internment camp. I’ve read how initially many of the people in California were housed in horse stalls until they could be sent to the camps. Can you imagine armed military soldiers suddenly coming to your house and taking you away by gunpoint even though you were American with no due process. It’s totally frightening.
DeleteIt’s amazing to see how much things have changed from the sadness of Internment camps to celebrating Japanese players winning the World Series today.
ReplyDeleteTimes change... but sometimes it seems like we never learn.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the Dodgers win, painful for Toronto
ReplyDeleteI was rooting for the Blue Jays! Oh, well. I didn't know that either about the baseball in the camps.
ReplyDeleteHistory repeats . . .
ReplyDeleteMy mother's family was uprooted at that time. She had a couple of brothers/brother-in-laws who were sent away. In fact one of them (with Hawaii Hochi) was shipped back to Japan with the oldest son. The mother and 2 younger children were on a different boat. The first boat was sunk (maybe mistakenly?) by a US military boat and all died. The mother and 2 children arrived in Japan - not knowing what happened to her husband and son. In Japan they were spit upon and treated as traitors. They lost their family home in Kaimuki. The atrocities of war and hate. But to their credit, my mother and her siblings never spoke ill of those times.
ReplyDeleteKay of Musings: Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! That is absolutely horrible and so incredibly sad.
DeleteThat is so tragic…and sad.
DeleteA while back I saw a show on PBS about baseball in the internment camps. It was very interesting.
ReplyDeleteAn aquaintance at work was interned at one of the camps, what a dreadful time it must have been. As for Japanese baseball players, Toronto Blue Jays need to go shopping in Japan I think, we need a talented chap like Ohtani! BTW I was at that final Game 7, and yes it was a crushing disappointment when the Dodgers won, as the Jays had so many chances to win..... oh well, watch out for next year.
ReplyDeleteKay of Musings: Art says that’s what we Cubs fans say all the time.
DeleteLoving a sports team almost always brings heartache eventually. But that is nothing compared to the cruelty with which we treat fellow human beings. Yes, it was terrible then, and it is happening again.
ReplyDeleteWhen will we ever learn?
Wow! What interesting history with the baseball teams in the camps. I knew that prisoners in the Holocaust created orchestras and choirs but didn't know about these baseball teams. The above mentioned PBS documentary would be interesting. That book needs to be in elementary schools. I pray we don't go backwards too much and repeat history. Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteIt was a terrible time and people did and agreed to terrible things, the worst, for me, being the atomic bomb drops. I have read all the arguments about the lives saved, but, even so. I don't know about others but for me, and I am 83, my childhood and adolescence was haunted by the fear of someone else using one, rationale be what it may.
ReplyDeleteAnd now our grandchildren can have the same nightmares.😥
DeleteSadly, there were internment camps here.
ReplyDeleteTheir property was taken away and they were sent to another part of the country.
I had no clue about baseball and the internment camps. History and the telling of it has never been so important as it is right now. We must never stop telling the stories.
ReplyDeleteKay, you tell the story well about the internment camps. It was indeed a dark time in our history and it is happening again.
ReplyDeleteMy dad was interned at Rohrer AK, and my aunt who is still alive at 100 remember the smells of horses and such at Santa Anita where they were first rounded up and "STORED" as enemies. My dad who passed at 99.5 never spoke ill of that time. It was a different time, They had a hotel in downtown Los Angeles, and all was lost.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing. On all counts. We've not learned the lessons.
ReplyDelete