Asahi, The | Legend/Team | The Downtown Eastside’s famous baseball team. Established in 1914, The Asahi’s home field was the Powell Street Grounds in Japantown, where visiting American semi-pro teams also played to crowds of fans. The Asahi won several championships and were a popular draw during the 1930s for sports fans in Vancouver. Following the Imperial Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941, a series of legislations were imposed on Japanese-Canadians — including internment — and the team was disbanded. In 2003, The Asahi was finally inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, the same year that the National Film Board of Canada released the documentary film, Sleeping Tigers: The Asahi Baseball Story (embedded below). In 2014, the story of the team was made into a feature film in Japan.

Usage | “Have you seen the plaque at Oppenheimer Park honouring the Asahi?”