Interviews

1. Welcoming Nomo

2. Nomo's impact on later Japanese players

3. Nomo's personality

4. Nomo attendance boost

5. Dodgers relationship with Japan

6. Walter O’Malley’s philosophy

Acey Kohrogi

Former Director of Asian Operations for Los Angeles Dodgers

Nomo's impact on later Japanese players

Kuroda, Saito, and everybody else that followed behind him, I think it really made them comfortable or confident about performing the major leagues, and a lot of those guys I’ve talked to personally about this, basically they told me that because Nomo-san did it, we knew that there might be a chance, that we could succeed there. And it kind of basically called him a bridge across the Pacific. He built the bridge and we were just able to go across it and you can tell even Kuroda, you can talk to him today and he’ll tell you right now, “if Hideo Nomo wasn’t here probably I wouldn’t be here either.”

baseball Hideo Nomo Japanese United States

Date: March 21, 2014

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Mark Langill

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Acey Kohrogi, formerly Director of Asian Operations for Los Angeles Dodgers and assistant to Peter O’Malley, owner of the Dodgers, for 20 years, is currently working for MVP Sports Group, serving as the firm's head of Asian operations. Kohrogi spent two decades with the Dodger organization and helped them attract the likes of Major League Baseball stars Hideo Nomo, Takashi Saito, Hiroki Kuroda, Chan Ho Park and Hong-Chi Kuo. His interview for Discover Nikkei was conducted in conjunction with Dodgers—Brotherhood of the Game, the exhibition at the Japanese American National Museum. (September 2014)