Conscription and Professional Baseball
From the 1937 Second Sino-Japanese War onward, NPB players were increasingly conscripted. By 1944, player shortages made league play nearly impossible, and the 1945 season was cancelled entirely. Athletic players were often sent to front lines, and being a professional baseball player offered no exemption from military service.
Eiji Sawamura - Three Conscriptions, Death at 27
The most famous casualty was Yomiuri pitcher Eiji Sawamura, who pitched brilliantly against Babe Ruth in 1934 and posted a 0.81 ERA in NPB's inaugural 1936 season. Conscripted three times (1938, 1941, 1944), his first deployment damaged his throwing shoulder from grenade training. He was killed on December 2, 1944, when his transport ship was sunk off Yakushima. The Sawamura Award was created in 1947 to honor him.
Kageura and Others Lost
Osaka Tigers' Osamu Kageura, the 1936 two-way star (.338/1.69 ERA), died in the Philippines in 1945. Nagoya's Shinichi Ishimaru, who threw a no-hitter in 1942, was killed off Okinawa in 1945. Over 70 NPB players perished in the war, including many future star candidates whose lost potential is immeasurable.
Biographies of Eiji Sawamura are also helpful
Post-War Revival
Professional baseball resumed remarkably quickly after the August 1945 surrender, with an East-West exhibition in November and league play restarting in 1946. Returning veterans took the field amid ruins, providing entertainment and hope to a recovering nation. The memories of fallen players are preserved at the Baseball Hall of Fame Museum as an essential chapter in NPB history.
Military Pressure on Baseball and the Purge of 'Enemy Language'
As the Pacific War intensified, the military tightened control over professional baseball. In 1943, English-derived terms were banned as 'enemy language': strike became 'yoshi,' ball became 'dame,' and out became 'hike.' Team names also dropped English; Yomiuri became 'Yomiuri-gun,' Hanshin became 'Moko,' and Nagoya became 'Sangyo.' These controls aimed to strip baseball of its entertainment value and transform it into a militarized competition. Players sometimes performed military drills before games, and the sport's autonomy was severely compromised during wartime.
Student Mobilization and the Loss of Baseball's Next Generation
The October 1943 Student Mobilization Order sent liberal arts university students, previously exempt from military service, to the battlefield. Promising college baseball players destined for professional careers were no exception, with top prospects conscripted one after another. Elite baseball programs at Keio, Waseda, and Meiji lost many players, and only a fraction survived to play professional baseball after the war. The student mobilization effectively severed NPB's future talent pipeline, becoming one underlying cause of the personnel shortages that plagued post-war NPB.
The Memorial for Fallen Players and Preserving Memory
A memorial monument for baseball players killed in war stands on the Tokyo Dome grounds. Engraved on it are the names of professional and amateur baseball players who lost their lives in the Pacific War. At annual memorial services, NPB officials offer flowers, continuing efforts to prevent the memory of war from fading. Yet few fans know the monument exists, and even those visiting the stadium rarely notice it. The stories of fallen players do not appear in textbooks, but they serve as a valuable medium for conveying the sacrifices of war through sport. Each name erased from player registries represents a life cut short that must not be forgotten.