When the Dodgers became back-to-back champions, the man holding the World Series Most Valuable Player award was pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto. This marked a proud moment for Japanese Americans in Los Angeles – yet tension has grown in the community after federal agents appeared in Little Tokyo earlier this year.
On Saturday, Yamamoto threw 2.2 innings of relief and earned the series-clinching win just a day after starting Game 6. His endurance on the mound not only secured the Dodgers their third title in six years but also represented something larger: the growing visibility of Japanese American identity within American culture.
This visibility stands in stark contrast to events that took place earlier this year. On August 15, armed federal agents made an appearance at the Norman Y. Mineta Democracy Plaza outside the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) during a conference held by Gov. Gavin Newsom about California’s redistricting initiative.
As the press conference began, more than 75 Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents swarmed the sidewalks, arresting at least one passerby.
“The events that are happening today to immigrants just show that there’s been this long trajectory of discrimination and prejudice, othering of immigrants in this country, throughout our nation’s history,” said Kristen Hayashi, Director of Collections Management and Access and Curator at JANM.
The Historic Building and Mineta Democracy Plaza is also the site where Japanese Americans were ordered to assemble for forced removal to internment camps during World War II.
“Having CBP coming to Little Tokyo on the exact corner where Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their community and then incarcerated was a really chilling and terrifying moment for the community,” said Kisa Ito, Director of Communications and Development for the Little Tokyo Community Council.
Ito added that for some Angelenos, the organization’s silence in response to immigration raids has made it hard to “feel enthusiastic about supporting the Dodgers.”
These feelings can be complex for Japanese American families. Baseball is part of the national fabric in Japan. The annual national high school tournament has a devoted following and often features the future stars of Major League Baseball.
“I just think about my nephew, who’s four years old,” Hayashi said. “That’s all he knows is Yamamoto and [Shohei] Ohtani and [Hyeseong] Kim, you know – all these Asian baseball players.”
These players provide young Asian Americans with a role model to look up to who are not only playing but dominating on the biggest stage in baseball.
“[My nephew] is always pretending that he is a pitcher, and he’s always saying, ‘I’m Ohtani, I’m Yamamoto.’ And I just think that’s amazing that he just sees this representation from such a young age,” Hayashi said.
However, even stars like Ohtani have faced challenges in the United States.
“When [Ohtani] first arrived, he was criticized for using a translator: ‘Why isn’t he speaking English if he is playing baseball in the United States?” Hayashi said.
For Hayashi, this represents the complicated feelings Japanese Americans are experiencing in this moment.
“In some ways, you can see this through line, of this othering, of this expectation to be super American that Japanese immigrants have always faced,” Hayashi said.