THROUGH A DIAMOND: 100 YEARS OF JAPANESE AMERICAN BASEBALL By Kerry Yo Nakagawa 2001 SIGNED FIRST EDITION!  HARDCOVER WITH DUST JACKET!  Not only is the book signed by the author, but it is dedicated to close childhood friend.  Note:  As can be seen in the pictures, the first two pages have some bends in them.  There are also two small tears on the dust jacket--a very small one the front and a 2 inch one on the back--both are easily fixable but I will leave that to the buyer as some prefer not to have repairs.

Foreword by baseball great, Tom Seaver. Note that the four Japanese-American players on the front outside jacket have signed their names to the original photo used for the cover. The book measures about 8 3/4" X 11 1/4" X 1/2" and has 159 pages including an Index. ISBN 0-945213-39-5. "From the first organized Japanese American team in 1903...to the years of internment when baseball was survival...to the time when baseball once again built a bridge across the Pacific, Japanese Americans have played ball."--from the back jacket.

This is a great book. Through the stories, pictures, and interviews, we are shown how the game of baseball kept a spirit alive in some great Americans in such a difficult time. Kerry Nakagawa has done a wonderful job of capturing the spirit of some courageous people, placed in concentration camps during the second world war. Over 100,000 Japanesee- Americans were placed in these camps by the US Government. Despite such a tragedy, the prisoners built baseball fields and formed leagues to keep spirits high in this rough time. Diamonds in the Rough is filled with stories that show how the human spirit can prevail in even the most difficult of times. This book not only presents those excellent insights of perseverance and history, but it is also a great baseball book that will be enjoyed by baseball players and fans everywhere.  (Amazon review).