West Tokyo did what no one but the Japanese thought they could do, win the Little League World Series, But much to the surprise of the more than 27,000 fans, West Tokyo won the 1967 classic Saturday at Howard J. Lamade Memorial Field 6-1 over Chicago, Illinois. 

In winning the world championship for 11 and 12-year olds, West Tokyo became the first Japanese team in history to win the world title. They also became the third team from outside of North America to win the championship. 

Monterrey, Mexico won the other two titles when it put together back-to-back championships in 1957 and 1958. 

West Tokyo which became the darlings of the Series, after knocking off favored Newtown-Edgemont, the Pennsylvania representative, proved that it can field with the best but it displayed one of the best hitting attacks of any of the eight teams in the Series. 

The Japanese who went into the final with a .350 team batting average, cracked out seven hits off Bob Bob Stratts, who hurled a no-hitter in Chicago’s opening round victory. 

The game was delayed 91 minutes by rain, turned in West Tokyo’s favor in the third inning when Kenichi Tsuchiya slammed his first tournament home run off Stratts. It was the first hit off of Stratts in eight and two thirds innings of Series competition.