The Kyoto International Junior and Senior High School baseball team (School's official website)

By Kim Eun-young and Yoon Hee Young

Kyoto International Junior and Senior High School in Kyoto, Japan, is small with just 136 students. Founded in 1947 exclusively for the Zainichi (ethnic Korean residents of Japan), the school in the late 1990s formed a baseball team and began accepting Japanese students when the number of students shrank to nearly 70 due to operational difficulties.

Today, the student body is 40% Korean and 60% Japanese. The school has just a three-story building and small yard with a length of 60 m from home base to the end of the outfield.

This small school achieved a miracle by advancing to the semifinals of Koshien, Japan's National High School Baseball Championship that is dubbed a "dream stage" for teams in the country. Named after the stadium where the tournament is held, the term "Koshien" in Japanese symbolizes youth as well as the country's leading national sports festival in summer.

The tournament's fame is enough to fill stadiums of 47,000 seats and viewer ratings of nearly 20% for every game. This year's summer Koshien in August saw 49 of 3,603 competing high schools all over Japan advance from regional qualifiers to the finals.

School principal Park Kyung-su on Sept. 22 said in a written interview, "Nobody expected us to make the semifinal," adding, "All the effort and support we put in led to this great result."

"We had to borrow the fields of other schools to practice, and the manager and coaches separately focused on individual player improvement," he added. "Based on mental strength, composure and calmness not to repeat mistakes, the team fostered the ability to resolve crisis."

Park also thanked the Korean government, which provided KRW 10 million worth of baseball equipment, and Zainchi support as major factors behind the semifinal advance.

Founded in 1999, the team was considered a huge underdog after getting destroyed in its first game, 34-0. In March this year, however, it became the first team from a non-Japanese school to advance to the Spring Koshien and post a win in the finals. In this year's Summer Koshien, the squad advanced from the regional qualifying round with eight consecutive wins and posted three straight victories in the finals, with its semifinal berth making headlines across Japan.

The Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a letter (left) expressed support for the team's semifinal appearance in the Summer Koshien. The Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korean Baseball Organization also chipped in by donating equipment (right). (School's official website and KBO)

The principal said the string of victories didn't always bring joy. The school provoked controversy by playing its Korean-language theme song at the stadium every time the team won. The line "The land of Yamato across the East Sea is the dreamland of our divine ancestors" led to criticism of the school from the "internet's right wing."

Park said, "We sing our school song in Korean to maintain our identity as Koreans," adding, "Along with improving our baseball skills, mitigating spite and jealousy within Japan is another of our tasks."

"Our Japanese players sing the school song proudly and confidently," he added, "Many Japanese students have applied to enter our school due to their affection for Korean pop, language and culture."

"In line with being an international Korean-Japanese school, our goal is to foster players active in both countries," the principal said, "I hope the school plays the role of envoy between the two countries like the Joseon Tongsinsa (goodwill missions sent from Korea's Joseon Dynasty to Japan from the 17th to 19th centuries) to help communicate through baseball."

Infielder Shin Seong-hyun of the Doosan Bears and former LG Twins infielder Hwangmok Chi-seung also played for this school.

eykim86@korea.kr