In November 1934 as the United States and Japan drifted
toward war, a team of American League all stars that
included Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, future
secret agent Moe Berg, and Connie Mack barnstormed
across the Land of the Rising Son. Hundreds of
thousands of fans, many waiving Japanese and American
flags, welcomed the team with shouts of “Banzai! Banzai
Babe Ruth!” The all stars stayed for a month, playing
18 games, spawning professional baseball in Japan, and
spreading goodwill. Politicians on both sides of the
Pacific hoped that the amity generated by the tour—and
the two nations’ shared love of the game—could help heal
their growing political differences. But the Babe and
baseball could not overcome Japan’s growing nationalism,
as a bloody coup d’état by young army officers and an
assassination attempt by the ultranationalist War Gods
Society jeopardized the tour’s success. A tale of
international intrigue, espionage, attempted murder,
and—of course—baseball, Banzai Babe Ruth is the
first detailed account of the doomed attempt to
reconcile the United States and Japan through the 1934
All American baseball tour.
"How did
two nations which shared the values of the same national
pastime go
from baseballs to bullets? Historian Rob Fitts tells a dark
tale of baseball
caught between democracy and fascism in prewar Japan. Banzai
Babe Ruth is a
sayonara home run!"
John Thorn
Official Historian of Major League Baseball and author of
Baseball in the
Garden of Eden.
"If I could have taken one road trip with anyone in the
history of American
sport, I think I would have traveled with Babe Ruth and the
All-American All
Stars on their 18-game tour of Japan in November of 1934.
With the drumbeat
growing louder and louder as World War II approached, with
the Babe suddenly
at loose ends near the end of his baseball career, with home
runs and
innocence dwarfed by political machinations and suspicions,
the trip played
out like a B-movie potboiler. Luckily for us, now Robert K.
Fitts lets us
come along in 'Banzai Babe Ruth!', his well-written
chronicle of all that
happened."
Leigh Montville
author of The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth and
Ted Williams:
The Biography of an American Hero
"An intelligent, well-crafted account of an important period
in the history
of U.S.-Japan relations. Painstakingly researched,
rich in color and detail, it goes beyond
baseball, illuminating the social, economic and political
life of a distant
era, one whose impact can be still felt today.
Fitts's best work and a valuable addition to any baseball
(or Japan) lover's library."
Robert Whiting
author of You Gotta Have Wa and the Meaning of Ichiro
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