Last member of historic Japanese-Canadian baseball team dies at 102 | CBC News

The last surviving member of a storied Japanese Canadian baseball team has died at the age of 102 in Kamloops, B.C.

Kaye Kaminishi was a part of the legendary Vancouver Asahi team that played in the city from 1914 to 1941 before being disbanded due to the internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. 

Earlier this year, Kaminishi accepted the honour of an official day, dubbed Vancouver Asahi Day, being declared on Jan. 11 in memory of the trailblazing team.

Kaminishi was remembered as someone who loved the sport of baseball but also used it as a way to reach out to others.

During the Second World War, Kaminishi and his teammates, along with 22,000 other Canadians of Japanese descent, were sent to internment camps — a slice of history featured in a Heritage Minutes video released in 2019.

“During internment, he was sent to East Lillooet and the Japanese Canadian internment camp was on the opposite side of the river to the village of Lillooet. It was very racially divided,” said Sherri Kajiwara, the director and curator of the Nikkei National Museum.

“Through baseball, through his efforts, there was a coming together … between the camp and the the white village. And it really went far to heal a lot of racist differences, even right during the height of the internment era.”

Born Jan. 11, 1922, in Vancouver, Kaye Kaminishi grew up in Hiroshima, Japan, where he learned to play baseball in school before his mother took him back to Canada in 1933 after his father’s death.

In 1939, he joined the Japanese Canadian baseball team as a rookie at 17 and mostly played third base.

The Asahi was a powerhouse on the West Coast during the ’30s, winning many league championships during a time when Japanese Canadians faced discrimination in employment and political participation.

“Kaye always believed in playing with honour, respect, loyalty, and sportsmanship,” read a post from the Asahi Baseball Association. “Virtues that we should all live by.”

Kaminishi died on Saturday, surrounded by family members, according to the Asahi Baseball Association and the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

“Definitely his story [is] not only of baseball [but] his heritage, his lived experience of internment, his constant championing of the sport and its role in peacekeeping,” Kajiwara said.

Team still resonates with people: son

The Asahi Baseball Association was established in 1914 and played at a field on Powell Street, where Oppenheimer Park is now located.

“Dad grew up in Vancouver. He was born and raised in Vancouver, and for him to be recognized … he’s still sort of in disbelief,” Kaminishi’s son, Ed Kaminishi, told CBC News in January when the city declared an official day celebrating the Asahi.

WATCH | Kaye Kaminishi’s son Ed reflects on ‘amazing’ honour for the Asahi team: 

Only surviving member of legendary Japanese baseball team accepts Vancouver honour

Kaye Kaminishi spent the morning of his 102nd birthday accepting a proclamation from the City of Vancouver declaring Jan. 11 to be Vancouver Asahi Day in honour of the team that played in the city from 1914 to 1941, before it was disbanded due to the internment of Japanese-Canadians.

“The Asahi were the pride of the Japanese Canadian community and a symbol for equality and respect in times of harsh racial discrimination,” says the team’s website.

A new incarnation of the Asahi Baseball team still fields youth teams and plays in games and tournaments in Canada, Japan and the U.S.

Ed Kaminishi said he’s not sure why the Asahi team still resonates with people but that the team reflects the resiliency of the Japanese people. 

“It’s amazing how it’s kept on.”