Pacific Pitch: U.S.-Japan Baseball Diplomacy

Pacific Pitch: U.S-Japan Baseball Diplomacy, curated by Meridian International Center in Washington, D.C., with support from the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, charts the history of our shared national pastime from its introduction to Japan at the end of the 19^th century to present day.

Advised by Robert Whiting, author of You Gotta Have Wa, The Meaning of Ichiro, and The Chrysanthemum and the Bat, and co-curated by Dr. Sayuri Guthrie Shimizu, Professor of History and Dunlevie Family Chair in History at Rice University, Pacific Pitch: U.S-Japan Baseball Diplomacy uses more than 50 facsimiles of archival photographs and ephemera to relay how Japan and the United States have bonded through friendly competition.

The images, many not previously exhibited, draw off the collections of the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, the Library of Congress, university libraries, and private collections, among others.

The exhibition will open at the Tokyo Metropolitian Central Library on June 2 before traveling to three other cities in Japan throughout the duration of the year.

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