This week, we have our very first thematic podcast. It’s a great story of victory and defeat, racism and acceptance, international relations, and most importantly of all: baseball!
I hope you’ll enjoy listening to this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Give it a listen here, and tell me what you think!
Sources
Roden, Donald, “Baseball and the Quest for National Dignity in Meiji Japan.” The American Historical Review 85, No. 3 (June, 1980), 511-534.
Images (courtesy of the Wikimedia Foundation)
![Ichiko in the first decade of the 20th century (a few years after the Yokohama-Ichiko games).](http://historyofjapan.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/800px-the_first_gymnasium_in_tokyo-_before_1902.jpg?w=300)
![The old Ichiko building is now part of the Tokyo University campus.](http://historyofjapan.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/800px-university_of_tokyo_-_komaba_campus_-_building_1.jpg?w=300)
![The first pitch at the inaugural Japan High School Baseball Tournament in 1915. Only tangentially relevant, but I do love those outfits.](http://historyofjapan.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/ceremonial_first_pitch_1915.jpg)
![The site of the Yokohama Athletic Club is now Yokohama Stadium, home of the Yokohama DeNA BayStars.](http://historyofjapan.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/e6a8aae6b59ce585ace59c92.jpg?w=300)
![The 2007 Japan High School Baseball Championships. Baseball remains incredibly popular in modern Japan.](http://historyofjapan.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/koryo_high_school_no89-hanshin_koshien_stadium_2007.jpg?w=300)
Awesome episode. I’d always wanted to learn more about the history of baseball in Japan.
This is a great podcast. As are the other episodes.