Baseball in Japanese American Internment Camps

Abstract

My research examines the lasting effect of baseball played by Japanese internees in the internment camps during World War II. During their internment, many Japanese men, women, and children played baseball not only to pass the time, but also to send an important message to free Americans: they were just as American as anyone else. In this paper, I argue that although it does not appear that this effort immediately affected American perception of the Japanese, it did have a lasting effect. Despite the racism that Asian-Americans still feel today, the effect is present in the scholarship as well as literature of Japanese-Americans. Most scholars agree that the internment was an injustice that has often been overlooked. In addition to the scholarship, adult and children’s authors have taken to literature to argue for the humanity of the internees. These books, especially the one aimed at the younger audience, describe the internees with sympathy, and encourage the reader to put themselves in the characters’ shoes.