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During World War II, the U.S. government incarcerated more than 120,000 Japanese Americans at camps across the country. One of the largest was Manzanar, in the remote California desert. The camp was mostly demolished after the war, but for the last year, volunteers have been working to restore the baseball diamond that incarcerees once played on. Last weekend, for the first time since the war, it hosted a game, and NPR's Adrian Florido was in the bleachers.
UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: All right, who's ready to have this very first exhibition game here at the Manzanar baseball field?
ADRIAN FLORIDO, BYLINE: The face-off was between two well-established Japanese American amateur teams - the Little Tokyo Giants from Los Angeles against the Templars from the city of Lodi.
DAN KWONG: Everybody get in here.
FLORIDO: Before the first pitch, Dan Kwong, first baseman for the Giants, spoke to his team in a huddle.
KWONG: You are the first people to play ball in over 80 years. Think about all the spirits who have played on this field. Let it hit you however it hits you, and have a good time.
UNIDENTIFIED PLAYER #1: Yes, sir.
KWONG: All right.
UNIDENTIFIED PLAYER #2: Let's go, Giants.
UNIDENTIFIED PLAYER #3: Everybody here. Hey, Kwong on three. One, two, three.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Kwong.
FLORIDO: The Manzanar site is now administered by the National Park Service, but Kwong, an artist from the city of Santa Monica, was the leading force behind its ballfield's restoration. He worked with volunteers for a year to clear tumbleweeds and rebuild the backstop. It's an all-dirt diamond in the desert, just like during the war. Two benches for dugouts, simple wooden bleachers. There's no outfield fence. If the ball lands in the tumbleweeds, it's a home run. An old camp guard tower still looms over the field.
(SOUNDBITE OF BALL STRIKING GLOVE)
UNIDENTIFIED UMPIRE: Strike.
(CHEERING)
FLORIDO: Dan Kwong's parents were among the 10,000 people held at Manzanar.
KWONG: The reason why people were here, put in this camp, is because it was a time when Japanese heritage people were hated and feared in this country and distrusted in this country. And yet they still were going to play the American game.
MARTY SAKATA: Carson, shorten the swing up a little bit, OK?
FLORIDO: Marty Sakata is manager of the Lodi JACL Templars.
SAKATA: It's amazing to be out here in a field basically the same as during camp. This all-dirt, rocky, slow field (laughter) with tumbleweeds is fantastic. It is fantastic.
FLORIDO: Segregation before the war kept Japanese Americans out of white baseball leagues, so they formed their own. Sakata's team has been active since 1915, except when its players were sent to Manzanar during the war. Mike Furutani is a pitcher for the Templars. His uncles were incarcerated.
MIKE FURUTANI: A lot of the people say that a lot of things that sustained the community while they were in the camp was baseball - was the thing that reminded them that they were still American. Right, it sucked, but they could still play ball and forget for three hours, you know, all the horrible things that are happening.
FLORIDO: Furutani is one of the older players on his team. He says before today, many of the younger ones had only heard stories about the places where their ancestors were locked up.
FURUTANI: But they - I don't think they've ever experienced how far, how desolate and how, you know, horrible the situation was, the injustice.
(SOUNDBITE OF BAT STRIKING BALL)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Oh, yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Go, baby. Go, baby. Go, baby.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Yeah.
(CHEERING)
FLORIDO: Twenty-year-old Kainoa Tsuye is a star hitter on the Giants. He got the first hit and scored the first run of the game.
KAINOA TSUYE: I got butterflies in my stomach right now just talking about it. I have lineage that was in this camp, so now, being able to play on the same field, in the same general area that they were in, for - it's insane.
FLORIDO: Melinda Yamane Crawford was in the bleachers, cheering on her son Robert and also thinking about her dad, who served in the war, and a friend who had been locked up here.
MELINDA YAMANE CRAWFORD: It's a mix of emotions. You could tell, I'm probably (laughter) emotional right now. 'Cause I'm honoring my father. I'm honoring my friend, but I'm also enjoying a game of baseball and watching my son carry on that tradition.
FLORIDO: So who won the first game played on Manzanar's diamond in over 80 years? The Little Tokyo Giants.
(APPLAUSE)
UNIDENTIFIED PLAYER #4: Good game.
UNIDENTIFIED PLAYER #5: Good game.
UNIDENTIFIED PLAYER #6: Good game.
FLORIDO: Adrian Florido, NPR News, Manzanar, California. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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