Wailaua grew baseball stars back in the day, and Toshio Kameda was just the latest.
On this day in 1937, Kameda struck out 14 batters as Mid-Pacific beat Roosevelt 13-3. Kameda was the youngest of nine boys from the household. Hawaii legend Ted “Big Train” Kameda grew up to be the best of them, and they all played together during the war. His other brothers were Tom, Mitsu, Shige, Donald, Robert, Fred and adopted sibling Fumio Sunahara.
Toshi Kameda played professional baseball with Ted Kameda from 1938-41, pitching for the Hanshin Tigers along with fellow Hawaii players Bozo Wakabayashi, Kaiser Tanaka and Jimmy Horio.
Kameda, who had a 1.44 era in three seasons with Hanshin, and the rest of his Americans in the league were ordered home by the United States in 1941 due to rising tensions between the countries, but he turned his stay in Japan into a career.
Toshio Kameda became the president and general manager of Honolulu Travel Service and he made multiple trips to the country after the war.
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