American Go E-Journal

GO SPOTTING/GO PHOTO: A 1942 Life Magazine photo of Japanese American men playing go at the Heart Mountain Relocation Camp in Wyoming is among the Life go photos* found online by EJ reader Troy Anderson. Another one shows “Japanese go game being played at alien relocation camp,” while a third shows Japanese prisoners of war Kiichiro Hiranuma and Toshio Shiratori playing go and a fourth depicts prisoner of war Akira Muto playing go with rough pebbles on a paper board. Click here for background on the relocation and internment of approximately 110,000 Japanese nationals and Japanese Americans during World War 2. In 1988, Congress passed and President Ronald Reagan signed legislation apologizing for the internment on behalf of the U.S. government.
* the site where these photos were originally posted no longer exists; we’ve included new links for three of the four shots; if you locate the one of Akira Muto, please email us at journal@usgo.org.