MANZANAR, Calif. — Swinging at the first pitch on a hallowed baseball field was 23-year-old Logan Morita. As the crowd fell quiet, he thought of a great-uncle, Jimmy Masatoshi Morita, who 80 years before played for a baseball team at Manzanar, one of 10 Japanese American concentration camps.

Painstakingly rebuilt in the barren landscape of the camp, the field hosted games Saturday for the first time since it closed in the 1940s.

Logan Morita, an electrical engineering student at the University of California, Davis, had never been to a Japanese incarceration camp before.

"It's honestly a surreal experience," he said. Morita, a native of Lodi, reflected on the arduous journey his grandparents made to reach California's high desert.

As it was during WWII, baseball at Manzanar isn't just about the score or a winning record. The attendees said it was about a reclamation of space, community and power.

Rebuilding a desert field at the foot of the Sierra Nevada

In the morning game, 13-year-old Rylen Yamamoto, playing with the JACL Lodi Templars, struck out three batters in a row against the Li'l Tokio Giants.

"As a player, I just want to play the game. That's why they played at the camps. Because they wanted to feel normal even just for a few hours."

Mike Furutani, a Templars player and manager of the North All-Stars

As it was during WWII, baseball at Manzanar isn't just about the score or a winning record. The attendees said it was about a reclamation of space, community and power.