A softball arcs toward home plate during the inaugural Battle of the Ranks at Yokota Air Base, Japan, on Nov. 15, 2024. (Juan King/Stars and Stripes)
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — Fly balls arced into the outfield at the baseball field at this airlift hub in western Tokyo as U.S. and Japanese airmen met for the first-ever Battle of the Ranks, a friendly softball tournament on Friday.
Early morning rain ceased in time for dozens of ball players and their guests to convene at Friendship Field, where airmen of the U.S. Air Force 374th Airlift Wing joined their counterparts from the Japan Air Self-Defense Force Operations Support Wing on the diamond.
Four teams intermingled with American and Japanese commissioned and noncommissioned officers faced each other during a full day of competition.
“Have fun, that is the only reason we are out here today, a little camaraderie,” wing commander Col. Richard McElhaney said in remarks before the tournament began.
“Learn from each other, get to talk to your teammates and ask them questions about what they do. It is all about the camaraderie and friendship, it is less about the game as much as it is about learning from each other,” he said.
McElhaney and support wing commander Col. Hiroyuki Ishii together threw out the first pitch.
“This is an event for (deepening our friendship) and (to) make it broader,” Ishii said at the tournament start. “We make an effort to cooperate with each other including an event like this.”
The bench reacts to a play during the Battle of the Ranks, a daylong softball tournament at Yokota Air Base, Japan, on Nov. 15, 2024. (Juan King/Stars and Stripes)
Hgh-fives and handshakes closed the inaugural Battle of the Ranks softball tournament at Yokota Air Base, Japan, on Nov. 15, 2024. (Juan King/Stars and Stripes)
Both players and spectators celebrated and clapped energetically as American players hit multiple homeruns out of the park. Lopsided scoring in one game in the tournament ended with a 15-4 victory by the senior noncommissioned officers over their subordinates.
Capt. Nathaniel Freeman, the primary event organizer, said he was happy to pull together the event.
“It has been an absolute blast,” he told Stars and Stripes at the field.
He and fellow junior grade officers who are part of the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force Company Grade Officers Council, a private, national organization, schedule events like these along with their Self-Defense Force counterparts at the base.
“We have done things ranging from a karaoke event to volunteer service projects, and it has been one of the most fulfilling things of my life,” he said.
During the tournament, the range of softball skills players brought to their teams made for outstanding throws, catches and hits.
Eiichi Okubo, an Air Self-Defense Force security manager, said he cannot play well but really enjoys watching Major League Baseball stars like Shohei Ohtani of the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
“He is great,” Okubo said at the tournament. “Hopefully we would like to have this event every year, a regular event.”
Players with the two militaries gave each other high fives and handshakes after each game.
Freeman said he hopes this mixing of American and Japanese military in events such as these continue to grow into the future.
“The relationship is already very strong, it is just reinforcing that and getting to know each other in and out of work, in informal ways and professional ways,” he said as onlookers celebrated another homerun.
