与那嶺要

BRUCE WEBER “Wally Yonamine, 85, Dies; Changed Japanese Baseballhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/05/sports/baseball/05yonamine.html


与那嶺要さんが亡くなったことを知る。
NYTの記事では、彼が敗戦直後の日本に渦巻く反米感情を克服しつつスターになっていったことが強調されている;


Wally Yonamine, who was the first American to play professional baseball in Japan after World War II, has often been compared to Jackie Robinson for “integrating” the Japanese game.

When he made his debut for the Yomiuri Giants*1 in 1951, Yonamine was reviled by fans and players alike, who resented his otherness, just as Robinson had been vilified four years earlier when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. At a time when anti-American sentiment was rife in Japan — memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were still fresh — Yonamine endured catcalls and worse. Rocks and bottles were hurled at him from the stands. The Hawaiian-born son of Japanese parents, he was not only the enemy, he was a traitor.

And like Robinson, Yonamine overcame the prejudice and became a beloved star player in Japan, a three-time batting champion. His biographer, Robert K. Fitts, saw him as even more, titling his 2008 book about him “Wally Yonamine: The Man Who Changed Japanese Baseball.”

ここで比較されているジャッキー・ロビンソンは黒人として初のメジャー・リーグ選手となった。また、彼はプロのアメリカン・フットボール選手になった最初の亜細亜系米国人でもある。因みに、俺は中日ドラゴンズの監督としてしか知らない。