80th Anniversary of Atomic Bomb Game -- 06 AUG 2025

[Bill Chiles]

Dear Seattle Go Center Community,

Tomorrow is the 80th anniversary of America dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.  Our generous benefactor, Kaoru Iwamoto 9p, was playing a Honinbo title match game with Utaro Hashimoto about 5 miles from the impact site.  The blast disrupted the last day of their three-day game, and though windows were broken from the blast, nobody in the playing room was badly hurt.  Later in the day, they restored the board state and finished the game.  Only later, as they walked to their host’s house, did they get the terrible news of what happened as refugees were fleeing the center of Hiroshima.

There is an annual gathering at Green Lake to recognize this event with a beautiful floating lantern ceremony.  For more info on the ceremony, go to https://fromhiroshimatohope.org.  Seattle Go Center joins the activities prior to the lantern ceremony to replay the Atom Bomb Game.  If you're walking around Greenlake from roughly 4pm-6pm, a bit south of the theater on the west side of the lake, you might stop and say hey to the volunteers there today or place some game moves yourself.

For more information on the Atomic Bomb Game, including a game record, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Go_games#Atomic_bomb_game   and

https://www.seattlego.org/2020/08/04/75th-anniversary-of-the-atom-bomb-game  .

Peace,

Bill