The adults in town were surprised. Isoroku Takano, later Yamamoto*, was an introverted child. At school, he usually sat quietly with his arms crossed. After school, he didn’t stop to play with the other boys, but headed straight home. Unusually, though, the boy seemed to come out of his shell when he talked to an American who had recently arrived in town.

The man, a missionary named Horatio Newell, had left an impression, especially after he constructed the first baseball diamond in the area. Yamamoto was one of the local boys who eagerly learned the new American sport. He played hard and was once even knocked out by a thrown ball as he was trying to reach second base.

Yamamoto also joined the Sunday School classes. Newell had a knack for making the lessons engaging for little boys, at one point even pulling a live snake out of his pocket as he told them the story of the fiery serpents from the Book of Numbers.…