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Stories: Bro Baba from David Ikegami

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Bro Baba from David Ikegami 27 May 2003
Memories of Brother Baba, et al
Ikegami 1952-55 - Mauss/Robertson Eras
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was sent to labor in Sanjo, Niigata while I was serving as a Traveling Elder with George Kanahele. When we got to Sanjo, one of the missionaries there was operated on for appendectomy and I stayed back to take his place. Sanjo had a small congregation. Only three members.

I felt intimidated and felt strongly that we had to increase the membership. We went to the nearby city of Nagaoka for the purpose of opening a branch there and were on the train between these two cities daily.

It happened that every time we were on our way back to Sanjo, there was a great big boy about age 13 riding in the cab of the train.

We also stood in the cab, so I asked this boy why he didn't sit inside the cabin, where it was warm, and he replied that he disliked the smoke and preferred to stay in the cab in spite of the cold. (He only wore geta and his old school uniform.) He must have been cold.

We told him that we were missionaries of the Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter day Saints and we felt as he did that we didn't want to smell all that smoke in the cabin.

So I asked him if he would be interested in discussing some principles of the Church with us. He said he would drop in at our home on our way back.

This started his daily lessons of the gospel. We developed a very close friendship with this man, whose name was Shohei Baba. He ended up to be our golden prospect. We were able to start him in the church and to eventually perform his baptism.

In the meantime we felt that we could get more students involved in our Church activities by getting into some sports program.

We made up a basketball team of course with Bro.Baba. He was already 6' 4" tall and very mobile for his size. Elder David Parrish was my companion and he is tall and I think he played some high school basketball at home.

Across the street from where we lived, there was the Sanjo High School, who repeatedly won the All Japan High School basketball tournaments for many years. We went to their gym and asked if they would let us play with them. I don't know if we played against the championship team, but because of the height we had, they were no competition for us.

We also formed a ping pong team and played against the team where we held our services, the Shinyo Ginko(Bank).

They had players that played on the national ping pong team, and they were a strong match for us. We could only garner beginners and we were no match for them. The only good player we had was Bro. Baba. He played a GREAT game, but eventually lost to their leader.

We always recognized Bro Baba's athletic skills. We even played baseball during the summer and Bro Baba pitched for us. He was quite a fast ball pitcher and I caught for him.

We hardly had enough players on the field. In fact we had asked some young girls to play in the outfield because we didn't have enough boys to go around.

As I caught for Bro. Baba, I realized that I have NEVER caught for such an outstanding pitcher that age. His fast ball and change up was so good that hardly any balls ever made it to the outfield.( Bro. Baba later became a professional pitcher for the Tokyo Giants)
After our missionary discussions came to an end, the prospects of baptism came up. We asked him what he thought about the church and he said he was ready to be baptized. So he made an arrangement for us to meet with his family. They ran a small vegetable stand in the city.

Everyone is small in that family, EXCEPT for Bro. Baba.( He was the only son).

The family wholly agreed that they had NO objections for him to join the church because of the great influence for good we

represented. We asked Bro. Baba if we could make an appointment at the furo (Public bath) for this baptism, and he objected to this.

He said he wanted to be baptize on December 23, 1953 (Joseph Smith's birthday) just as Jesus was baptized in the stream.

Winter in Sanjo can be VERY cold. But in accordance with his wishes we went to the river on the set date.

At a secluded area we changed into our white clothes and went into the water. We had to break the ice as we went in. We walked almost midstream and yet the water was still only at Bro Baba's waist, but even if we went further it was not getting deeper, so we decided that we would do it on that spot.

As I started the prayer I could not remember it and Elder Don Lundberg had to prompt me with the baptism prayer as hypothermia had caused me to forget the prayer, his name and even my name!

As I placed him in the water, I could feel the current washing us downstream. But we were able to hold on and make it back to shore.

As we got out of the water our clothing started to ice and we dashed into the shrubbery and quickly changed into dry clothes and bicycled at top speed for home and the warmth of our kotatsu.

Elder Lundburg later told me that he was worried that there might be a news item that two Mormons almost drowned in the river!

It was customary in those days that a District conference was held almost every 6 months. During the last district conference, there were only 3 sisters from Sanjo and they had to perform in a talent show and they told me that they were humiliated from their performance. They wanted to be part of something they could be proud of.

What they wanted was a choir. They asked if we could form a choir. My companion and I had no training in music, except that maybe I could read a little note.

We had to buy a little foot pedal operated Yamaha organ . We had to raise money for this.

So when I went to the post exchange at Niigata Air Base. The Exchange officer said he would help us and allowed us to buy American candies which we bought for about $.10 and sold for $.25.

In no time we had our 18,000 Yen to buy the organ.

We found out at our first practice that the next problem was that there were several who could not hold a tune, including Bro. Baba. So thru intensive practice they were able to learn their parts. After a hectic month or so of practice, our conference date crept up on us, and finally it was time to leave.

These were only students and the problem was are these students going to be able to finance the trip to Yamagata city?

I was concerned about this, but EVERYONE of them got their parents permission and we headed to the conference.

On the night of the talent show, everyone remembered how dismal a performance we had in Sanjo during the last practice time, but this time we had about 20 in our choir and they sang with great gusto and no doubt the other branches that came were quite surprised at what we had done.

Our choir members were overwhelmed by this experience and I had tears in my eyes.

Later in life Bro Baba had to give up his career in baseball because he had injured his pitching arm. Subsequently he went into pro wrestling where he became famous.

Many years later he was in Honolulu and gave me a phone call and said he wanted to talk to me about an important matter. When I went to see him, he said he wanted to be married in the LDS Hawaiian Temple.

I realized that he remembered all the things we talked about such as the importance of Temple marriage however, he had been inactive for awhile and did not have the priesthood. Also his fiancee showed no interest in the church.

So regretfully he could not get what he wanted.

On a subsequent mission to Japan I had the pleasure of meeting Bro Baba again. BUT I made the terrible mistake of not asking him to come to church with me. I have regretted this opportunity for him to return to church.

Bro Baba has passed on and that chance will not come to me again.

Bro Baba was known as Giant Baba throughout Japan. He was a celebrity. It is unfortunate that he could not remain as a faithful member to the end.

David Ikegami (Elsie) PA 1/52
Sendai, Travelling Elder, Sanjo (Niigata), Tokyo.

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