Zenimura built it. And they did come.
March 7, 1943: The first official game was played at Zenimura Field inside the Gila River War Relocation Center in Arizona.
Kenichi Zenimura, known as the father of Japanese American baseball, had seen the magic firsthand.
Years earlier in Livingston, California, anti-Japanese sentiment ran high. Large signs reportedly warned: “No Japs Wanted.”
Yet when Zenimura’s Fresno Japanese team traveled there to play, they played hard, clean baseball. Then something unexpected happened. Soon there were return games. And the signs disappeared.
To him, baseball had the power to bring people together.
Photo by Frank Kamiyama
Through the barnstorming tours he organized in the 1920s and 1930s, Zenimura brought legendary players such as Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig to the West Coast and to Japan.
Courtesy of Bill Staples Jr.
Kenichi Zenimura helped organize tours that brought American baseball to Japan while also using the game to connect American communities in Fresno and Livingston.
Courtesy of Japanse American National Museum
The Gila River War Relocation Center in Arizona. Hot, dusty, and painfully monotonous, the camp held thousands of Japanese Americans during WWII.
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
In 1943, Eleanor Roosevelt visited the Gila River camp against her husband’s wishes. After seeing the conditions, she remarked that she would not want to live like that.
Courtesy of Kerry Yo Nakagawa
A diagram of Zenimura Field at Gila River, built by incarcerated Japanese Americans in 1943. Amazingly, it sat outside the barbed wire.
A Field of Dreams
Zenimura began organizing baseball almost immediately after arriving at the Gila River War Relocation Center.
At first the project had no official approval. But residents began joining the effort anyway.
Howard Zenimura, Kenichi’s son, later recalled, “Guys from the other blocks asked, ‘What are you doing?’ Pretty soon all these people were coming with shovels.”
Using picks, shovels, and whatever materials they could find, the residents cleared desert brush. Howard also said his father somehow managed to get access to a bulldozer to help level the field.
Wood was quietly “borrowed” from nearby lumber supplies. Dugouts were built. A small grandstand followed.
Resourcefulness Behind Barbed Wire
The field itself reflected the creativity of the camp residents.
Flour marked the baselines. Bags of rice served as bases. Home plate and the pitching rubber were carved from wood. Mattress fabric became uniforms.
The outfield was lined with castor plants that eventually grew seven feet tall. Balls hit over the plants were home runs. Balls hit through them were doubles.
Outside the park sat a simple tin coffee cup used to collect donations for better equipment.
Eventually Zenimura raised enough money to order real gear from a sporting goods store in Fresno.
Courtesy of Kerry Yo Nakagawa
With determination, resourcefulness, and community effort, Zenimura Ball Field took shape inside the Gila River camp, complete with dugouts and a grandstand.
Photo by Milo Stewart Jr.
The wooden home plate from Zenimura Field at Gila River. Today it is preserved in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Illustration by Jack Matsuoka
Illustration by Jack Matsuoka. Women in the camps sewed baseball uniforms from mattress ticking, showing how the game survived through community effort.
Courtesy of Bill Staples Jr.
The opening day poster for Zenimura Field, March 7, 1943. Zenimura was not only a great player and coach, but also a gifted promoter.
Courtesy of Kerry Yo Nakagawa
Built by Kenichi “Zeni” Zenimura and fellow incarcerees, the field quickly became a place where Japanese Americans reclaimed their dignity and joy behind barbed wire.
Opening Day
On March 7, 1943, Zenimura Field hosted its first official game. Thousands of residents attended. Camp director Leroy Bennett threw out the ceremonial first pitch.
Block 28, led by Zenimura, faced a local team from nearby Guadalupe, Arizona. The result: an 8–0 shutout.
What began as an improvised field quickly became the center of life inside the camp.
For some residents, Zenimura Field was their first experience watching baseball. Actor Pat Morita later recalled: “The teenagers and the adults would gather every night to watch the games. I had never seen a live baseball game before.”
Organized Baseball Inside the Camp
Zenimura soon organized a 32-team league divided into three skill levels. Teams from outside the camp also came to play, including the Phoenix Colored Nine and the Tucson Badgers.
When the Badgers arrived at Zenimura Field they had a 52–0 record. They left with their first loss.
Bernie Weinstein, a Badgers player, later remembered the experience, “In the back of our mind we wanted to make up for Pearl Harbor.” Then, “I saw the fence and said, ‘God, this is like a prison.’ I realized these people were Americans, just like myself. The more I thought about it, the more I thought, what a big mistake we made by putting these people in this relocation camp.”
For many visiting players, the game forced them to confront the reality of incarceration. And it changed more lives.
Courtesy of Kerry Yo Nakagawa
Kenichi Zenimura and his players generated so much excitement and support, they were later able to fund a cross-country inter-camp tournament — while incarcerated.
Courtesy of Bill Staples Jr.
Kenichi Zenimura. Even while incarcerated, his love of baseball brought people together and reminded them what it meant to be American.