Manzanar's restored baseball field opens Oct. 17 with a doubleheader honoring incarcerated Japanese Americans

The restored baseball field at Manzanar is about to get its formal grand opening. On Saturday Oct. 17 the Manzanar Baseball Project will hold a grand opening doubleheader on the restored field at Manzanar National Historic Site in California's Owens Valley. Admission is free but seats require registration. Both games and the opening ceremonies will be streamed online.

A game that survived the camp

Built in early 1942 Manzanar was the earliest of the ten large camps where Japanese Americans were confined during World War II. More than 10,000 people were held there. In all ten camps over 120,000 people were locked up without due process and most of them were U.S. citizens. Baseball was one part of pre-war life that carried on and the diamond became a place of community spirit and resilience.

Great Leap a Los Angeles arts nonprofit led the restoration which began in 2023. Project director Dan Kwong has worked with the National Park Service and descendants of the incarcerated and the Nisei Athletic Union. The exhibition games use vintage equipment and custom 1940s uniforms and organizers call them performances rather than reenactments.

Saturday's schedule

Makoto Taiko opens the day and the first game pits the Florin Athletic Club against the Li'l Tokio Giants. Opening ceremonies include a blessing from a Bishop Paiute Tribe member and a keynote from the Japanese American National Museum's CEO Ann Burroughs. The guest of honor is Jim Morita who starred for Manzanar's team in 1943. Camp survivors Bob Matsumoto and Hiroshi Jack Takeshita will join him.

A second game between North and South all-star teams follows. The day ends with Obon dancing on the diamond. Visitors are urged to bring water and sun protection since the site is a high-desert location with limited cell service.