From 1919 to 1940, the Asahi, an all Japanese baseball team in the Vancouver Metro area of British Columbia, won 10 city championships. The renowned team was admired by sports enthusiasts from all backgrounds. To their Japanese fans, who dealt with racism on a daily basis, the team was a profound symbol - proving they were equal to everyone else. When the team didn't make the semifinals in 1941, it was considered a bad omen.
This book, written from the perspective of a Sandy Saito, a young Japanese boy, takes us through the experiences of his family and their community in the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941.
Prior to the attack, the Vancouver Japanese community was a busy one. Sandy was pretty much an ordinary boy just like many other boys his age.
His relationship with his father was strong. He was a doctor who had a private practice because he could only work in oriental hospitals. Sandy and his father played catch and went to baseball games together, the only place his reserved father let go of his emotions. Sandy, his younger brother Ty, and his parents, had a good life.
After 1941 everything changed.
In spite of their teacher's pleas for her students to remain friends, racism took hold at school. At home, as his mother prepared the house for war, it seemed to be as much to keep them safe from what was to come for them as it was from external forces. One day Sandy, his little brother, Ty, and their friends went to the park to play baseball with their usual peers. They were set upon, called names and had rocks thrown at them.
Throughout 1942 the lives of Japanese Canadians became more and more constrained. Radios, cameras and cars were confiscated. As life became more stressful, Sandy watched his mother become sad and his father become increasingly irritable. In order to do his job, Sandy's father ended up working more and more. He often had to break curfew and this created conflict between the parents. After one such argument, when his father made his mother cry, Sandy wished his father wouldn't come home.
Shortly afterwards the RCMP arrived at their door with a note saying their father had been sent to "where he was needed the most." The rest of the family had to be ready to leave in 48 hours. The children thought they were going to be with their father, but after a long train ride and then a journey in a freezing cold truck, they ended at a camp in a three room shack. They had to use an outhouse, get water from a tap, and eat strange food in a mess house. Even worse, they discovered that their Father was at a different camp.
As much as Sandy missed his father, his guilt about wishing he wouldn't come home ate away at him. Even as adults attempted to reassure children that everything was temporary, he began to realize that nothing would ever be the same again.
Luckily they arrived at the camp during summer vacation. Children found joy swimming in the lake as though it was just summer camp.
Adults on the other hand worried how they would get through the winter. The shacks had no insulation, not even tarpaper, to keep the cold wind out.
Then things got worse. Another family with a small child and a screaming baby moved into their cabin. The boy's mother made them welcome, but Sandy found the crowded conditions and the noise made life intolerable.
Thankfully, baseball came to the camp. It wasn't the same as a game at a stadium, but they got to watch older boys play. Some of them were even from the Asahi team. Then Sandy's father returned to work at the sanitarium they were building in the community. He still wasn't around to play catch because he had to be, "where he is needed most."
Then the boys' mother and Sandy came down with TB. Only after Sandy almost died trying to get help for her, did his father realize that his family is as important as his patients. When Sandy was finally released from the hospital, he found that the community had embraced baseball in a significant way. I really like how the sacredness of it is portrayed in the last panels of the book.
I appreciate how this narrative shows readers both the collective and personal experiences of the Japanese community during their internment. David Namisato's sepia toned artwork is perfect for capturing the historical essence of the times. It's important to pay close attention to the details. I appreciate how much emotional nuances he depicts in the relationships between the different characters. I like how the images reveal the difference between the younger and older generations understanding of the events of the times.
Over time I have read a number of books about treatment of the Japanese during the war both here in Canada and in the United States. Last summer my partner and I explored museums an hour's drive from our home. They focused, at least in part, on the internment and how people were integrated into the different communities afterwards. What I've learned is that no matter how many books I've read, the individual stories, like this one, are all important. It's the juxtaposition of the Asahi Baseball team in the context of the Japanese Internment that make this one unique.
The back matter of the book contains all kinds of additional material by Susan Aihoshi. Some of it focuses on family history. Other sections address Asian immigration and the racist events in Vancouver.
I would probably purchase a number of copies of this book if I was still working in the library. The format ensures that young readers will eagerly learn more about this aspect of our history.
If you are interested, you might enjoy watching this NFB documentary, Sleeping Tigers: The Asahi Baseball Story.
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