Aerial shots of a night game

Those who were sent to the battlefield and survived returned to Korakuen Stadium. After the war, Korakuen Stadium was also "reborn." The first postwar game played at Korakuen was the Waseda-Keio game on April 6th and 7th, 1946.

Furthermore, Korakuen Stadium was the only ballpark in Japan that could be called a "theater." To get a sense of the atmosphere at the time, watch Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece "Stray Dog," produced in 1949. The footage captures the lively figures of a packed stadium and star players such as Tetsuharu Kawakami, Noboru Aota, and Shigeru Chiba on the diamond.

And in 1949, the same year that "Stray Dog" was released, Mizuhara Shigeru, who had been drafted in 1942 and then unfortunately been imprisoned in Siberia, returns to Korakuen wearing a white linen suit from head to toe.

"I've just returned home."

It is a famous line. Mizuhara then became the manager of the Giants, and the following year, 1925, saw the start of a two-league system with the Central and Pacific Leagues, and many memorable games were played at Korakuen Stadium.

Among these, the one that has left its mark not only on Japanese Baseball but also on the history of Japan itself is the "Imperial Game" on June 25, 1959. In the presence of Emperor Showa, the Giants and Hanshin clashed, with the score still 4-4 going into the bottom of the ninth inning, and it was Shigeo Nagashima, in his second year with the team, who decided this famous match. Nagashima hit the ball thrown by Hanshin's Minoru Murayama to the left field pole, sending it into the upper left field section. This was the day Korakuen truly became a "theater."

During this time, Korakuen also became the stage for some historic milestones. On September 5, 1962, Masaichi Kaneda of the Japanese National Railways set a new world record with 3,514 strikeouts, and in 1964, the same year the Tokyo Olympics were held, Sadaharu Oh, who had discovered his one-legged batting style, hit 55 home runs on September 23, setting a new Japanese record in a single season.

Kawakami, Aota, Mizuhara, Nagashima, Oh... These are the great players in Japanese baseball history. They were the "star players" who showed off their magnificent skills at Korakuen.