This photograph is of a semiprofessional Japanese American baseball team. This was taken in Utah, around 1915. The man in the back row, third from right is shortstop Jiro Morikuni, my great-grandfather.
Back row, second from left
Front row, far left
Bill Staples, a scholar with the Nisei Baseball Research Project, kindly did some research into my great-grandfather's playing days, discovering, among other things, his draft card from 1917.
Jiro is described as a short man of the Caucasian Mongolian race, medium build, with brown eyes and black hair. He was born in Kochi City on 26 August 1889. In 1917, he was a coal miner for the U.S. Coal and Coke Company in Kenilworth, Utah.
Mr. Staples speculates that the UCM/UGM uniform emblem from the first photograph stands for Miners' Union Club, Coal Mine & Union, Utah Coal Miners, Miners' Union Group, or (see the scoreboard in the background) Utah General Merchandise. The rival SS team in the third photograph is likely from Soldiers Summit, a mining town 27 miles from Kenilworth.
Nisei Baseball Research Project
Japanese American Baseball History Project
Japanese American Baseball: A Goodwill Ambassador
Asian American Baseball on the Web