During the Pacific War, NPB players performed baseball before soldiers on the southern front as 'morale-boosting tours.' Used to boost military morale, players were required to play with smiles while witnessing the horrific reality of war.
An examination of the hardships and survival of Japanese professional baseball during the Pacific War. This article traces the impact of militarism, player conscription, team name changes, and the efforts to preserve baseball amid wartime.
NPB players lost to World War II: Eiji Sawamura's three conscriptions and death at 27, Osamu Kageura's battlefield death, and the war's devastating toll on Japanese professional baseball.