The Yuta Nippō Newspaper unlocks a unique chapter of American history. Spanning from 1914 to 1991, it tells the stories of the great west as population and industry grew in the fading wake of Manifest Destiny. As one of only three Japanese language papers allowed to be published during World War II, it holds particular historical significance in documenting a Japanese American viewpoint of the trying times the United States endured while at war with Japan.
The Yuta Nippō’s first-generation Japanese American founder Issei Uneo Terasawa had served as a writer for the San Francisco paper Shin Sekai before coming to Utah. The Shin Sekai paper was a Japanese language daily with a Buddhist orientation and Ms. Terasawa incorporated that Buddhist orientation into the Yuta Nippō for Japanese Americans in Utah and the region.