Asahi (baseball team)

The Asahi were a Japanese-Canadian baseball team established in 1914. The team went on to great success, particularly in the 1930s, winning numerous tournaments and championships. The team was based in Vancouver's Oppenheimer Park, in the city's Japantown. Matsujiro Miyazaki, a Powell Street shop owner, was the Asahis' first coach and manager. The Asahi Baseball Team won the Pacific Northwest Championship five years in a row. The team was disbanded when its members were dispersed across Canada due to the Japanese-Canadian internment during World War II. The team was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003[1] and the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.[2] The team was designated an Event of National Historic Significance in 2008, with a plaque unveiled in Oppenheimer Park on September 18, 2011. (the 70th anniversary of the Asahi's last game) On April 24, 2019, the team was honoured with a postage stamp issued by Canada Post.[3]

Asahi
1929 version of the Club.
Information
LeaguePacific Northwest Championship
LocationVancouver
Year founded1914

In media

Vancouver Asahi

In December 2014, a Japanese studio released a period drama movie called Vancouver Asahi starring Satoshi Tsumabuki and Kazuya Kamenashi.

Sleeping Tigers: The Asahi Baseball Story

Jari Osborne directed a 2003 documentary about the team, Sleeping Tigers: The Asahi Baseball Story. Produced by the National Film Board of Canada, the documentary combines archival film and dramatic recreations, along with interviews with the last of the Asahi. The 50 minute film garnered four awards including a Rockie Award for Best Sports Program at the Banff Television Festival and a Golden Sheaf Award.[4][5]

Heart of a Champion

A novel written by Ellen Schwartz, the novel has won the Silver Birch Award. The story is about a boy named Kenji "Kenny" Sakamoto who aspires to be a baseball player for the Vancouver Asahi, but his dreams were crushed when the Canadian government issued an order for all Japanese Canadians to be placed in internment camps, then got permission to clear the land and make a baseball field.

Heritage Minute

On February 19, 2019, a Heritage Minute was released, depicting an Asahi baseball game and the subsequent internment of a player alongside other Japanese Canadians. The short segment was narrated by the last surviving member of the team, Koichi Kaye Kaminishi and novelist Joy Kogawa.[6][7]

References
  1. "Vancouver Asahi". Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Retrieved 2011-09-18.
  2. "Vancouver Asahi". BC Sports Hall of Fame and Museum. Retrieved 2009-10-10.
  3. Takeuchi, Craig (24 April 2019). "Canada Post unveils Vancouver Asahi baseball stamp at Burnaby's National Nikkei Centre". Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  4. "Sleeping Tigers: The Asahi Baseball Story". Collection. National Film Board of Canada. 2003. Retrieved 2009-10-10.
  5. Sleeping Tigers: The Asahi Baseball Story, Canadian Materials
  6. Takeuchi, Craig (19 February 2019). "New Heritage Minute takes Vancouver Asahi baseball story to national audiences". Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  7. "Heritage Minutes: Vancouver Asahi". Youtube. Historica Canada. Retrieved 26 April 2019.

Vancouver Asahi on IMDb


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