This summer, the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown unveiled a groundbreaking new exhibit, “Yakyu | Baseball: The Transpacific Exchange of the Game.” While much of the display celebrates the shared love of baseball between the U.S. and Japan, one of its most poignant stories speaks directly to the Japanese American experience during World War II.
At the heart of the exhibit is an artifact tied to incarceration: the home plate from the Gila River concentration camp in Arizona, built and used by “Father of Japanese American Baseball” Kenichi Zenimura. During WWII, when more than 125,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their homes and confined in desolate camps, Zenimura created a ballfield in the desert. For incarcerees, baseball was more than a game—it was survival, dignity, and community. Gila River residents, barred from freedom, still found joy and resilience in the game Zenimura organized.
Placing this piece of history in Cooperstown is profoundly significant. The Baseball Hall of Fame is not only honoring Zenimura’s legacy but also affirming that the Japanese American story belongs in the central narrative of America’s national pastime. Visitors who walk into the exhibit encounter stories of Babe Ruth’s 1934 Japan tour and the rise of Ichiro Suzuki and Shohei Ohtani. Yet, among these legends stands Zenimura’s desert diamond, reminding us that baseball was also a lifeline for Japanese Americans, before the war and during one of our nation’s darkest chapters.
For JACL members, this recognition is both historic and deeply personal. It demonstrates how the incarceration experience—and the strength of the community—continues to shape the broader American story. Baseball at Gila River was not just recreation; it was an act of quiet resistance, asserting humanity in the face of injustice.
The Hall of Fame calls this exhibit “unlike anything we’ve ever done in Cooperstown.” For the JACL community, it’s a positive step in the right direction to properly elevate this important legacy at a national institution — honoring Zenimura’s vision, and ensuring future generations understand that Japanese Americans have always been part of the fabric of this game, and this country.
Zenimura’s home plate, on display in Cooperstown. The caption reads: “Courtesy of the Kenichi Zenimura Family, Protected by the Gila River Indian Community, Entrusted to the Japanese American Citizens League – Arizona Chapter.”
Photo: Bill Staples, JACL-AZ President, and Kerry Yo Nakagawa, Founder, Nisei Baseball Research Project. Staples is holding a baseball signed by Kenso Zenimura, Kenichi’s son.
Photo: Kenichi Zenimura, the “Father of Japanese American Baseball,” and former incarceree at the WWII Gila River incarceration camp in Arizona.