Japan-born pitcher Hideki Irabu had long kept one secret to himself: His biological father was an American.
In a country where mixed parentage is still a social stigma, Irabu had little to gain from acknowledging his past.Although Irabu's half-American background was rumored among Japanese baseball aficionados practically since his debut, fans and local media had politely steered clear of the topic, treating him as just another sports hero.
Irabu's 51-year-old stepfather, Ichiro Irabu, who raised the pitcher as his own son, was reluctant to talk about that part of Irabu's past. But he said in a telephone interview that Irabu's dad was an American.
"I don't want to talk about what's private. Please forgive me," he said Wednesday from the restaurant he runs in Osaka, 250 miles west of Tokyo. "I don't want to answer, but it is true."
After The New York Times ran a story in Tuesday's editions about Irabu's background, the Japanese sports tabloids followed with a story that had been taboo for years.
The Daily Sports reported today that the 28-year-old Irabu had told some Japanese reporters he wanted to pitch for the New York Yankees because he wants to find his biological father.
"Even if he can't meet his father, he believes his father will see him if he does well in the United States," the Daily Sports reported, quoting unidentified officials with Irabu's former club, the Lotte Marines.
Both the Lotte Marines and the Pacific League of Japanese professional baseball declined comment on the reports about Irabu's father.
Issues of racial background are very sensitive in Japan, which is largely homogeneous. People of mixed racial background often face social ostracism as children and discrimination in finding jobs and marriage partners later in life.
But some of Japan's most loved baseball heroes are not Japanese. The Chinese Sadaharu Oh, who hit more home runs than any other player, now manages the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks.
Sachio Kinugasa, second only to Cal Ripken as the ironman of baseball, playing in 2,215 consecutive games from 1970-87, is the son of an American serviceman and a Japanese woman.
Some players suffered abuse similar to what Jackie Robinson went through.
Slugger Isao Harimoto, who is of Korean ancestry, endured ugly jeers from opposing team fans as late as the 1970s.
By refusing to be ashamed of his ancestry, Harimoto became a hero in Japan's Korean community. Images of his mother sitting in the stands in traditional Korean dress have become legendary.