In 194,1 aspiring writer Toshio Mori sent the manuscript for his first book toCaldwell-based Caxton Printers, hoping to get his collection of fiction stories about the problems of the Japanese people living in America, published.
Caxton’s founder liked the book and they set a date to publish it. Five days later Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and a couple of months after,r Mori and his family were sent to an internment camp in Utah and Caxton decided to delay printing his book.
It would take another eight years after WWII ended until Caxton decided to publish the book, making Mori the first Japanese American to publish a book of fiction.
Alessandro Meregaglia is an Assistant Professor and archivist at Boise State’s Albertsons library and joins Idaho Matters to talk more about Mori’s story.
