Were the Japanese playing baseball before the US occupation?
They seem to be totally nuts over the game which would be a phenomena if it only started there 70 years ago.
The Japanese have been playing baseball since the time of the samurai; the game was brought to Japan in 1872 by an English professor whose name escapes me, and I’m in the middle of a working shift so I can’t find out :-)
Yes, the Japanese were playing baseball long before the occupation. That’s why Korea and Taiwan also play the game.