Vet dies after return from WWII reunion ballgame

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A Navy World War II veteran died, one day after returning home from a reunion softball game for U.S. and Japanese veterans in Hawaii.

Karl Sommer, 81, had a heart attack and died Saturday in St. Petersburg, said his wife of 56 years, Marge Sommer.

“Karl was extremely enthusiastic about the trip,” she said. “He had a blast. He thought that the Japanese men were just top notch in the way they handled themselves. The trip meant a tremendous amount to him.”

Sommer, who served aboard Navy amphibious landing crafts, hit two singles for the Kids & Kubs, a team made up of World War II veterans, in their 14-2 victory Wednesday against Japan’s Over the Rainbows.

The game, played at Hans L’Orange Park in Waipahu, was proposed by Sho Ishida, a Japanese television director who filmed a documentary on the Kids & Kubs several years ago.

Sommer was a high school sophomore in Rochester, N.Y., when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. His father, an immigrant who fought for Germany in World War I, encouraged him to enlist.