Manzanar Baseball Project

America’s favorite pastime. With or without barbed wires.

October 26, 2024: Manzanar Baseball Project hosted Little Tokyo Giants vs Lodi JACL Templars, followed by an all-star game.

They called it America’s pastime. But for Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II, baseball wasn’t just a game. It was a way to hold onto normalcy, dignity, and identity inside an unjust prison camp.

They were locked up, stripped of their homes, and told they were a threat to the country they loved. But they brought their gloves anyway. Their bats. Their cleats. And if they didn’t own one, they made it themselves. One thing they had was time.

Before long, they built baseball fields — more than ten of them, at least one in each of the permanent incarceration camps where Japanese Americans were imprisoned during World War II. It was the most popular sport behind barbed wire, played not just for fun.

Baseball at Manzanar, c1943. Photo by Ansel Adams.
Incarcerated Japanese Americans played regular games beneath the Sierra Nevada mountains. The sport brought escape, dignity, and unity inside the barbed wire.
Boy with a bat at Manzanar. Photo by Dorothea Lange.
Baseball wasn’t just for the adults. At Manzanar, kids played with the same spirit — often using handmade bats and gloves crafted from scraps and imagination.
A crowd of incarcerated Japanese Americans watching baseball at Manzanar. Photo by Dorothea Lange.
Even behind barbed wire, baseball brought people together. Baseball was more than a pastime — it was one of the few things at Manzanar that felt like freedom.
Softball at Manzanar during WWII.
Dozens of women’s teams formed behind barbed wire, including one with Momo Nagano Kwong, mother of Manzanar Baseball Project organizer Dan Kwong.
The Manza Knights baseball team at Manzanar during WWII.
The Manza Knights. One of many standout teams that brought pride and excitement to the dusty fields of Manzanar during WWII.
(From L to R): Johnny Nakagawa, Lou Gehrig, Kenichi Zenimura, Babe Ruth, Fred Yoshikawa, and Harvey Iwata after an exhibition game at Fresno's Firemen's Ballpark, October 29, 1927. Photo by Frank Kamiyama.
Kenichi Zenimura (center), pictured with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in 1927, would later organize one of the greatest baseball programs inside an American concentration camp.

They Built It, and People Came

At Manzanar, the dusty desert soil gave rise to something remarkable: over 100 organized baseball teams and 14 softball teams. Twelve full leagues. Thousands of spectators. On weekends, families gathered in makeshift bleachers to cheer on teams like the San Fernando Aces, San Pedro Skippers, Scorpions, Padres, Manza Knights, and Oliver’s. The most beloved games were held at Manzanar’s “A” Field, where the sound of cheers often drowned out the guard towers.

It was a reminder that no matter how harsh the conditions — cramped barracks, constant surveillance, the sting of injustice — hope could still thrive between the baselines. “If it wasn’t for the war,” recalled Gila River Eagles pitcher Tets Furukawa, “I think we could have had a Japanese American major leaguer even before Jackie Robinson.” The skill level was real: in 1943, a team from Camp Grant even defeated the Chicago Cubs in an exhibition game, 4–3.

A Game 80 Years in the Making

That same spirit was reborn on October 26, 2024, when the Manzanar Baseball Project hosted a commemorative game between the Little Tokyo Giants and the Lodi JACL Templars. The event, held on the restored A Field at the Manzanar National Historic Site, included an all-star game and brought together former players, descendants, historians, and supporters in an emotional celebration of a legacy nearly erased by war.

The Manzanar Baseball Project is the vision of Dan Kwong, Associate Artistic Director of Great Leap, a Los Angeles-based arts organization. Through archival research, community engagement, and site restoration, the project honors the legacy of those who played the game during incarceration, not just as a pastime, but as a protest, a balm, a lifeline. It’s a reminder that joy, pride, and identity can’t be confined by fences.

One of the players of Manzanar Baseball Project. Photo by Ricardo Nagaoka.
In 2024, descendants and athletes gathered to play on the restored field at Manzanar, where joy once resisted injustice, and where the game still lives on.
Artist. Organizer. Southpaw. Dan Kwong helped bring baseball back to Manzanar, honoring the legacy of those who found joy and dignity behind barbed wire.
Momo Nagano, age 16, at Manzanar. Photo courtesy of Dan Kwong.
Momo Nagano, age 16, at Manzanar. Her son Dan Kwong would help lead a project that brought baseball back to this desert site of injustice and resilience.
Dan Kwong standing with players from the North and South All-Stars during the 2024 commemorative game at Manzanar.
Dan Kwong stands with players from the North and South All-Stars during the 2024 commemorative game at Manzanar. The next matchup is schedule October 2026.

Supporting a Diamond in the Rough Time

Today, Manzanar stands not only as a place of mourning but of resilience. The historic site educates new generations, fosters reflection, and keeps alive the stories of those who turned dust into diamonds. In rebuilding the A Field, the Manzanar Baseball Project has done more than restore a ballpark. It’s helped restore a piece of dignity long overdue.

Due to the ongoing government shutdown, the games originally scheduled for October 2025 have been postponed to October 2026.

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