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. 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)

In media

Vancouver Asahi

In December 2014, a Japanese studio released a period drama 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.[3][4]

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.

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. ↑ "Sleeping Tigers: The Asahi Baseball Story". Collection. National Film Board of Canada. 2003. Retrieved 2009-10-10.
  4. ↑ Sleeping Tigers: The Asahi Baseball Story, Canadian Materials

Vancouver Asahi on IMDb


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