우리는 하나다

Abstract

Robert Whiting, the author of You Gotta Have Wa, was born in New Jersey, the United States and has published a pair of highly acclaimed books on Japan. He was graduated from Tokyo's Sophia University and was one of one of the very few Westerners to write a regular column in the Japanese press. He has also written for The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, and Time, among other publications. The book deals with the American players encounter with Japanese baseball in the 1980s during the strength of Japan's economic growth introducing various episodes from Japanese and American players. It also covers the history of Japanese baseball, the significance of high school baseball to the Japanese psyche, the organized cheering squad, and the interpreters. However, this is a very unusual baseball book and is more than a baseball book. The author concentrates on what happens when two cultures collide on and off the ground. The "Wa" means peace and tranquility, and is what one must have for group harmony in Japanese baseball and society. The "Wa" is anti-individual on the playing field, which is against American values. In fact, baseball is the major professional sport in both countries, but ''Americans played ball. Japanese worked at it,'' the author says.