Two days after Masahiro Tanaka revealed that “incidents in Florida aside from the coronavirus threat” made him fear for his personal safety, Yu Darvish, said on Youtube Saturday that he was aware of an increase in racial harassment against Asians since the coronavirus outbreak although he hadn’t been the target of any in Arizona.

“The problem is that in regards to Asians and Asian Americans, there have been reports of an increase in racially motivated things going on,” Darvish said. “Since President Trump started calling it the ‘Chinese Virus’ there has been an uptick. There has always been a little discrimination against Asians before this and of course against blacks, too, but it seems like there is more now.”

“What really concerns me is that here there is a gun culture. It’s no worry at the moment, but what about a year from now or two, if there is not enough food or people are out of work and don’t have money, that’s a scary thought.”

“As far as racial incidents go, I’m 196 centimeters and weigh 102 or 103 kilograms and I don’t know but I might not appear to by your typical Asian. If I’m at the supermarket, people might look at me funny but if they do, I haven’t noticed, so I don’t feel right now there are any issues. But my kids have Asian faces and down the road, the thought of that is a little scary.”

The Kyodo News story is HERE.