You gotta have what?

You Gotta Have Wa is one of those books that I have heard about for years, but never read. It is one of the books that people recommend when someone asks for good books on the baseball sites that I frequent. You know, like Ball Four, Bums, and more recently Moneyball. I finally added 'Wa' to my Amazon wish list this spring and when my birthday rolled around Suzy took great care of me, like she always does. Having a spouse feed your reading needs, and matching you in many of your reading desires, greatly enhances a relationship.
You Gotta Have Wa is not simply a baseball book. In fact, I would say that primarily it is a book that discusses Anglo-Japanese relationships, at least covering the period of the mid to late eighties. As I recall that was a pretty tense time, I seem to remember one higher up Japanese official calling the American worker 'stupid' my freshman year of college (1991). True or not, that reveals some of the undercurrents of unhappiness that were crossing the Pacific. The Japanese style of baseball is very regimented, every player plays predominantly the same way, and it is assumed that the best players are the ones who have dedicated themselves to the team the most. Their practices are brutal compared to those in the United States. This difference of styles leads to great resentments when the North American (gaigin) players come over to play in Japan. 'Wa' talks about some of those players (Bob Horner, Leon and Leron Lee, and many others) and how they did or did not adjust to Japan, and how Japan did or did not adjust to them. I don't know if the problems between the American players and the Japanese management were based more on xenophobia, ethnocentricity or just the natural clashing of different methods to reach the same goal. Any way about it 'Wa' makes you think about what it would be like trying to survive and live your life in a different culture. It also reveals what kinds of people were able to make it in this particular setting, the Lee brothers flourished and Bob Horner struggled mightily. How do you think that you would do?
Woops, I realize I got to the end of this without explaining what 'Wa' is. Any Japanese speaking readers will quickly cringe at my attempt to define wa, but here goes anyway. Wa is a sense of camaraderie or team spirit, that was often broken up by foreign players and their attitudes.