Why did baseball become so popular in Japan? Why would the bitter enemies of the USA be so eager to pick up our sport? At first, I thought maybe the popularity of baseball in Japan was just because of the presence of US soldiers based there. But there are/were also significant numbers of soldiers in South Korea and the Phillipines, and baseball never really caught on those countries, so the presence of US troops does not seem to be a major factor in the spread of baseball’s popularity. After all, if this was the case, baseball would’ve caught on in Europe. Ironically, baseball is very popular in the Caribbean, yet other than at Gitmo, there aren’t many US soldiers based there!
So, why did the Japanese pick up baseball so quickly and fervently?
Baseball in Japan took on its own flavor, less rowdy and more spiritual than in America. In the 1960s and 70s, the great Sadaharu Oh ruled Japanese baseball. His philosophy of sport:
Oh’s autobiography is titled A Zen Way of Baseball. The manager of Oh’s team, the Tokyo Giants, prepared for the season by purifying himself at a Buddhist retreat, and after losing several games, he delivered public apologies to the fans. The craftsman who made Oh’s bat wandered through a forest in search of a tree whose soul would match Oh’s soul. Oh’s sensei was Hiroshi Arakawa, who was not only a batting coach but also trained him in aikido, Zen, kabuki, and kendo: teaching how to hit by showing how to wait.
It is also because Japanese companies (in Japan) have a very strong team ethos. Almost all have baseball, softball and rugby teams in proper leagues. They take it very very seriously.
This is how Japan was able to field a relatively competant Rugby Union team in the last World Cup.
Even if baseball hadn’t become popular until after the war (which others have shown not to be true), your premise would still be flawed. The Japanese are not “the bitter enemies of the USA” anymore, and have not been for nearly six decades.
