John Kenneth Emmerson, an American diplomat serving in Japan, wrote The Adventures of Chojiro as a series of letters to his young daughter in the year prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, following the return of his wife and two children to the USA as tensions grew between the two countries. Chojiro is a giraffe who lives in Japan but wants to visit America. Chojiro's subsequent adventures—sneaking onto a steamship, meeting American giraffes in the San Francisco Zoo, making friends with Mickey Mouse in Hollywood—pose just the sort of juxtapositions that appeal to children. The original was hand written and illustrated by Emmerson on large sheets of rice paper.