Kenichi Zenimura
| Kenichi Zenimura | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| shortstop, second base, catcher, pitcher | |||
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Born: January 25, 1900 Hiroshima, Japan |
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Died: November 13, 1968 (aged 68) Fresno, California, United States |
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| Oahu-Service League debut | |||
| 1919 | |||
| Last appearance | |||
| 1955 | |||
| Teams | |||
| Hawaiian Asahi, Mills High School, Fresno Athletic Club (Nisei baseball team), Gila River (AZ) All-Stars | |||
Kenichi Zenimura (January 25, 1900 – November 13, 1968) was a Japanese baseball player and manager, known as "The Dean of the Diamond." After his death he has come to be recognized as "The Father of Japanese American Baseball".
Zenimura was born January 25, 1900 in Hiroshima, Japan and his family moved to Honolulu, Hawaii shortly afterwards. He first played baseball at Mid-Pacific Institute formerly the Mills Institute for Boys. In 1920 he moved to Fresno, where he played baseball on Japanese-American and previously all-white teams.
Many baseball historians believe he earned his titles for his remarkable career as a player (he excelled at all nine positions), manager (of Japanese-American league teams and European American teams in the Twilight leagues for older players), and international ambassador of the game (he led tours to Japan in 1924, 1927 and 1937).
In addition to organizing barnstorming tours to Japan, Zenimura was instrumental in the negotiations that led to Babe Ruth's visit to Japan in 1934. Several years earlier, in 1927, Zenimura also helped arrange a barnstorming tour to Japan for the Negro-league All-Star Philadelphia Royal Giants, led by Hall of Famers Biz Mackey and Andy Cooper.
During World War II, Zenimura and 120,000 other Japanese-Americans were sent to internment camps across the southwest United States, as directed by Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, on February 19, 1942.
Zenimura and his family were interned in Arizona on the Gila River Indian Reservation at the Gila River War Relocation Center. Almost immediately upon arrival at Gila River, Zenimura built a baseball field and established a 32-team league. Baseball at Gila River gave Japanese-Americans a sense of pride, hope and normalcy, making life bearable during their unjust incarceration. A book called Barbed Wire Base ball told many facts of him making the baseball field.
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