It's Been a Little While...
I'm working on a book!!
It’s certainly been some time since I’ve published additional content to this site. There’s a good reason for this. Back in the Spring of 2024, while driving home from work, I heard a story on NPR that immediately broke me out of my trance of driving the same route every day. The story centered on a man by the name of Dan Kwong. Dan’s mother, a Japanese American, was incarcerated along with over 10,000 other Japanese Americans, at the Manzanar incarceration camp during WWII following the events of the attack on Pearl Habor by Japan. Manzanar was (and still is) a dusty desert that experiences extremely hot summers and cold winters. Feeling betrayed by their country and not given a timeline for how long they would spend at the camp, the Japanese Americans chose to make community. This included building baseball diamonds across the camp, establishing and fielding over 100 women’s and men’s softball and baseball teams from 1942 - 1945.
Dan Kwong visited the Manzanar National Historic Site and, having noticed that the park rangers had rebuilt an old basketball court, proposed a joint effort between the Manzanar park staff, himself, and an array of volunteers to come together and reconstruct the main baseball stadium based on photos and documentation of the original. Once constructed, Dan would organize a baseball doubleheader to be played in October 2024. This event would serve as the first of what Dan hoped would be an annual event at Manzanar to honor those incarcerated there.
Not long after I heard this story, I received an email from the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) calling for new book proposals. I’ve never written or been a project manager for a book before, but I felt compelled to submit a proposal for a book that would tell the story of the Japanese Americans and their baseball endeavors at Manzanar, culminating with the efforts of Mr. Kwong.
I’m beyond excited to say that SABR gave the green light for the book proposal, asking if it could be ready for publication by the Fall of 2026. Now you know what I’ve been up to for the past year.
What’s involved with compiling a book for SABR you may wonder? I certainly did! The work involves recruiting additional authors beyond myself, editors, a fact-checker, ideating on the book title and chapters, and - of course - doing the research and writing for the articles I was going to contribute to the book. I cannot express enough gratitude to the amazing writers, editors, and fact-checker who have joined me over this past year. I am most especially grateful to Sarah Bone, a park ranger at the Manzanar Historic Site who has been an incredible consultant for the book. The book title will be How We Played the Game: Baseball at Manzanar [1942 - 1945]. It is on track for publication this Fall. I’m so excited to share it with you all!!!