November 14, 2014 – The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, has digitized a 1934 home movie showing several baseball legends on a goodwill tour of Japan. The film can be viewed on the museum’s website. The tour was the brainchild of a Japanese newspaper owner who wanted to see how receptive his country might be to professional baseball. The American team, which included Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, played against a team made up of the best players in Japan.
The tour was a huge success. More than 500,000 fans greeted the Americans when they first arrived. The Babe was the biggest crowd-pleaser, riding through Tokyo waving Japanese and American flags to cheering fans shouting “Beibu Rusu!” A total of 18 games were played in various cities. The Americans won every game, but that did not dampen the enthusiasm of local fans. The tour is considered a milestone in the immense popularity the sport has enjoyed in Japan ever since.
In battle during World War II, Japanese soldiers were said to have sometimes yelled “To Hell with Babe Ruth” to insult their American enemy. Nevertheless, he remained popular, so much so that in 1945 the U.S. War Department considered getting him to broadcast radio messages urging the Japanese to surrender.
Japan suspended professional baseball in 1944, but after the war U.S. occupying forces encouraged the league to resume play as a way to lift morale.
Link: BaseballHall
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