Baseball behind barbed wire on ‘Route 51’

WAUSAU – For Japanese-Americans interned during World War II, playing baseball inside of America’s internment camps brought a sense of normalcy in difficult times and helped create and strengthen social connections.

A new documentary details that experience and includes the stories of several central Wisconsin residents formerly incarcerated in camps during the war.  At 10 a.m. Sept. 29, “Route 51” host Shereen Siewert welcomes baseball historian Kerry Yo Nakagawa and documentarian Yuriko Gamo Romer for a discussion on the new film, “Baseball Behind Barbed Wire Fences,” which was screened this week in Wausau.

Listeners can join the conversation by emailing questions to [email protected].

“Route 51” is heard Fridays at 10 a.m. on The Ideas Network stations 101.3 & 91.9/Wausau, AM 930/Auburndale-Stevens Point, 99.1/Stevens Point, 100.9/Marshfield, 90.3/Park Falls, 89.1/Adams-Wisconsin Rapids, 89.9/Rhinelander-Eagle River, 88.3/Menomonie-Eau Claire and 88.7/River Falls and live streamed at wrfw887.com/listen-live.html. It is re-broadcast Fridays at 7 p.m. on 90.9/Wausau. Program archives are available at wpr.org/route51.