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.
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.