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| TOP
OF THEIR GAME (2000) |
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| SYNOPSIS |
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TOP
OF THEIR GAME profiles well-known and little-known heroes
from diverse sports, different eras and three generations.
Through personal interviews, historical images and present-day
action footage, we get to know fourteen Japanese American
athletes all who have been at the "top of their game."
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| Featured
are: Tommy Kono, three-time Mr. Universe and two-time
Olympic Gold Medalist in weightlifting and Emerick Ishikawa,
four-time National Weightlifting Champion; Wally Yonamine,
Japanese Baseball Hall of Famer who also played for the San
Francisco 49ers; Kristi Yamaguchi, Olympic Iceskating
Gold Medalist; Bob Kinji Shibuya, the "man you loved
to hate" on the professional wrestling circuit in the
1950s and 60s; surfers Wayne Miyata and Don Kadowaki;
California Bowling Hall of Famers Judy Kikuta and Dusty
Mizunoue; Wat Misaka, one of the first persons
of color to play professional basketball; Ann Kiyomura
Hayashi, two-time Wimbledon Champion; and brothers Johnnie
(USC, Detroit Lions), Eric (Dartmouth) and Chad
(USC) Morton, football sensations. |
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| PROFILES
BIOGRAPHY |
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| Dusty
Mizunoue and Judy Kikuta, bowling |
 Judy
Seki Sakata Kikuta and Dusty Mizunoue were among the top women
bowlers in Southern California in the late 1950s and 1960s.
Kikuta was the first woman west of the Mississippi to bowl a
sanctioned 300 game, a member of the Tournament Bowl team which
won the 1960 National Women's Team Championship, and was named
the 1960 Southern California bowler of the year. She is a member
of the Southern California Bowling Hall of Fame. Dusty Mizunoue
won back-to-back Western Women's Bowlers Opens in 1970 and 1971
and bowled in the Lady's Professional Bowlers Association. She
has won every individual and team championship at the national
JACL/JANBA tournaments and took part in goodwill tours of Hawai`i
(1959) and Japan (1967-68). She is also a member of the Southern
California Bowling Hall of Fame. |
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| Wayne
Miyata/Don Kadowaki, surfing |
 Wayne
Miyata was a pioneering professional surfer in both Hawai`i
and Southern Calfornia and was known as a leading big wave rider.
He appears in the classic surfing film Endless Summer. Don Kadowaki,
a native of Gardena, began surfing in the 1970s. Both men have
become surf board shapers and are currently among the leading
shapers in Southern California. |
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| Ann
Kiyomura Hayashi, tennis |
 Ann
Kiyomura Hayashi won fourteen national junior titles and the
junior Wimbledon singles title in 1973. In 1975, she teamed
with Japan's Kazuko Sawamatsu to win the Wimbledon women's doubles
title. She played on the professional tour for thirteen years,
winning a National Indoor doubles title and the Japan Open and
representing the United States in Wightman Cup play in 1976.
The San Mateo native also played for the World Team Tennis league's
Golden Gaters, Los Angeles Strings, and Hawaii Leis. |
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| Wat
Misaka, basketball |
 Wat
Misaka was a key player on two University of Utah national championship
basketball teams. In 1944, the team won the NCAA championship;
after two years in the military, he returned to school in 1947,
and was a starter on the 1947 National Invitational Tournament
championship team. He was drafted that year by the New York
Knickerbockers the first college draft choice in Knicks history
- for whom he played for a month before being suddenly cut.
He later turned down an offer to play for the Harlem Globetrotters.
He has since been active in Japanese American bowling circles
and has bowled in fifty-two consecutive JACL/JANBA national
bowling tournaments. |
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| Eric,
Johnny and Chad Morton, football |
 Eric
Morton starred at wide receiver for Dartmouth and is a third
year law student at George Washington University. Johnny Morton
just completed his sixth year as a wide receiver with the Detroit
Lions of the National Football League and has established himself
as one of the top receivers in the league. He had back-to-back
1,000 yard receiving seasons in 1997-98. He starred at USC and
left there as the Pac-10 Conference's all-time career leader
in catches and receiving yards. Chad Morton completed his football
career at USC as the 8th leading rusher in school history and
was named the team's Most Valuable Player for 1999. He gained
1,141 yards as a senior, third in the Pac-10 after just missing
the 1,000 yard mark in 1998. He also was a sprinter on the USC
track team for three years. |
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| Kristi
Yamaguchi, figure skating |
 Kristi
Yamaguchi is the 1992 Olympic women's figure skating gold medalist,
a two time world champion, and a four time world professional
champion. She was also named the Nicklodeon Kids' Choice
favorite female athlete award winner for three consecutive years. |
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| Tommy
Kono and Emerick Ishikawa, weightlifting |
 Tommy
Kono won thirteen senior nationals titles and eight consecutive
world championships (1952-1959) including two Olympic gold medals.
He also won four major physique titles, including "Mr. Universe"
three times. After retiring from active competition in 1965,
he coached the Mexican national team for the 1968 Olympics and
the German national team for the 1972 Olympics. Emerick Ishikawa
was the first Japanese American to win a senior nationals title,
winning four straight from 1944 to 1947. He also was a member
of the 1948 Olympic team. A native of Maui, he was also a champion
swimmer and original member of Hawaii¹s "Three Year Swim Club"
whose members became national champions. |
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| Wally
Yonamine, football and baseball |
 Wally
Yonamine was a high school football star at Farrington High
school and played with the San Francisco 49ers for a year before
an injury ended his professional football career. The Maui native
then turned to baseball, playing for the Salt Lake City Seals
of the Pacific Coast League for a year, then for twelve years
in Japan beginning in 1951. Ten of those years were spent with
the Tokyo Giants, during which time the team won eight pennants
and four Japan Series titles. Yonamine won one MVP award, three
batting titles, and was a Central League all star for seven
consecutive seasons. After retiring as a player, he coached
and mananged teams for 26 years, most notably the Chunichi Dragons,
whom he led to the Central League title in 1974. He was elected
to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1994. |
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| Kinji
Shibuya, professional wrestling |
 Robert
"Kinji" Shibuya was a professional wrestler from 1952 to 1975
and played mostly "bad guy" roles throughout his career. He
was previously a champion sumo wrestler and played football
at the University of Hawaii in 1946-47 and for semi-pro teams
in Hawai`i. His wrestling career also landed him roles in some
30 movies, along with various television appearances. |
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| DIRECTOR'S
BIO. |
| JOHN
ESAKI |
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With
an MFA in film production, Esaki brings 18 years of experience
in media arts production and administration and also teaches
a community documentation class at UCLA. A veteran documentary
filmmaker, he directed MACEO: DEMON DRUMMER FROM EAST L.A.,
a cross-cultural documentary about a young Chicano taiko player
and YUKI SHIMODA: ASIAN AMERICAN ACTOR, which traces the career
of the Japanese American actor from Sacramento into the concentration
camps and finally to Hollywood. Esaki is currently directing
TOP OF THEIR GAME, a 60 minute documentary on Japanese American
athletes for an upcoming exhibit at the Japanese American
National Museum. He also serves as the Media Arts Specialist
and is the primary liaison between the Media Arts Center and
the other Museum departments.
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| PRODUCTION
CREDITS |
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Executive
Producers: Karen L. Ishizuka and Robert A. Nakamura
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| Director:
John Esaki |
| Editors:
John Esaki and Veronica Ko |
| Digital
effects: Lyndon Versoza |
| Original
music: David Iwataki |
| 60 minutes.
Color |
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Call toll free (888) 769-5559
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