COMMENTARY
Ehime-Hawai'i baseball games set tone for evolving relations

By Charles Morrison

Youth baseball players from Hawai'i pay tribute to those lost in the sinking of the Ehime Maru at the Ehime Maru monument in Uwajima, Japan. The recent visit by the Hawai'i players may mark the beginning of a stronger relationship between Uwajima and Hawai'i, possibly a sister state/prefecture relationship. Photo by Charles Morrison

Sino-American normalization began with ping-pong diplomacy, and North and South Korean teams marched in the Olympics together. Last weekend, Hawai'i also was engaged in a more grassroots form of sporting diplomacy. Two baseball teams, one with 11- and 12-year-old players and the other in the 13-to-15 age division, toured Japan's Ehime prefecture, playing local teams as a tribute to the dead in the Ehime Maru accident and to cement a burgeoning new Hawai'i-Ehime relationship.

The baseball games were an outcome of the tragedy that touched hearts in Hawai'i and throughout the world, the accidental sinking of the high school fisheries training ship, Ehime Maru, off Honolulu by a U.S. Navy submarine on Feb. 9, 2001. Four students, two teachers, and three crewmen lost their lives in that incident, which inflamed passions in Japan in the early months after it happened.

Now, almost two years later, U.S.-Japan relations are normal, the Japanese ship and eight of the nine bodies were recovered in a remarkable Navy effort, and monuments to the dead have been built in Honolulu and in the courtyard of the high school in Uwajima, Ehime, the ship's home port.

Residents of both Ehime and Hawai'i, however, were eager to do something more to create a living monument in the form of a new and special relationship between the prefecture and the state.

An Ehime politician, Junnosuke Kainou, initially proposed a youth baseball tournament, and he met a ready partner in Seiji Naya, until last week director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. While Kainou won the support of prefectural officials, Naya organized a Hawai'i goodwill team of players, coaches and parents. Also part of the group were state Sen. Willie Espero, D-20th ('Ewa Beach, Waipahu) and state Rep. Ken Ito, D-48th (Kane'ohe).

The Hawai'i group also included Earl Ogawa, president of the Japan-America Society of Honolulu. Ogawa has played a critical role as an interlocutor with the relatives of those who died in the offshore tragedy and in building a positive Ehime-Hawai'i relationship. Several others, including me, were honored to join this group.

The baseball teams played four games in the prefectural capital Matsuyama and two in Uwajima. Fighting first-day jet lag and facing all-star Matsuyama teams, the Hawai'i boys won only one of the games played in that city's ultra-modern Botchan Stadium.

In Uwajima, despite a three-hour bus trip, cold and rain, the younger boys played to a 5-5 tie. The older Hawai'i boys were leading after two innings when their game had to be called because of darkness and rain, but earlier, they and their Uwajima counterparts had the thrill of a baseball clinic with Bobby Valentine, former New York Mets manager and former major league and Hawaii Islanders player.

Valentine, the first foreign coach of a Japanese professional team, had joined the Uwajima games at Kainou's invitation. He proved a superb diplomat, spending most of his time off the field graciously autographing baseballs and jackets and telling stories of his career.

As Naya constantly emphasized, the goodwill visit was about more than baseball. The Hawai'i group joined relatives, and city and high school officials, in a moving tribute to the dead at the Ehime Maru monument in Uwajima. By common consent, however, the emphasis was less on the past than on building a future relationship as the best possible memorial to the dead. It was agreed that next year, Ehime sports teams should come to Hawai'i.

Espero and Ito pledged to bring consideration of a sister state/prefecture Ehime-Hawai'i relationship before the Legislature. Hawai'i already has such relationships with Fukuoka, Hiroshima, and Okinawa prefectures, while Ehime has none.

While some sister relationships at city and state levels have flourished, many others have died when there has not been a critical level of interest to sustain them once the initial excitement or organizers passed on. A question thus arises as to what interests might sustain Ehime-Hawai'i ties over the longer term.

Aside from the special connection associated with the Ehime Maru tragedy, there are several bases for cooperation. First, Ehime, like Hawai'i, is infused with a spirit of aloha. This was typified by the enthusiastic welcomes we received everywhere, especially the clapping by our Uwajima hosts as we entered their small stadium on a mountain above the city.

Second, although Ehime may not have been known to many Hawai'i residents before the tragedy, it has about 4 million residents and an economy more than double the size of Hawai'i's, and it is certainly capable of supporting several cooperative activities.

Third, Ehime prefecture and Hawai'i have similar characteristics that could be the basis for joint activities beyond sports.

With rugged mountain and seaside scenery, several castles and the cultural treasures of the famous Oyamazumi Shrine, Ehime has strong (if not fully developed) tourist potential. It also has an important agricultural base as the center of the mikan (tangerine) industry. The common interest in fisheries is underscored because the Ehime Maru was in Hawai'i waters.

Youth sports, nevertheless, may well be the driving force of the evolving relationship. The diplomatic aspects of sports do not come at the expense of the competitive aspects. The boys played as hard as they could, and during games, the rest of us were partisan rooters for our own teams while appreciative of the talents of the opponents.

At a farewell reception, Japanese organizer Kainou ended remarks about building the Ehime-Hawai'i connection by saying, "And when we come to Hawai'i next year, we will surely beat you." Yes, Mr. Kainou, we will welcome you and the Ehime players to Hawai'i with aloha.

And in that same spirit, we will do our best to defeat you on the field.

Charles Morrison is president of the East-West Center in Manoa.