Physique

1949 · réf. 193149 — Tokyo: Nihon Hatsumei Shinbunsha c. 1949. An educational board game similar to snakes and ladders teaching the history of atomic physics. Four characters named "Proton" "Neutron" "Electron" and "Meson" accompany the players from the discovery of the X-ray to the Bikini Atoll nuclear bomb tests. It was released to celebrate Yukawa Hideki winning the Nobel Prize the first Japanese person to do so. Sugoroku board games were produced in Japan since the early modern period and were often used as educational tools for young children. This example is focused on nuclear physics using bright colours and cartoon illustrations to explain complex concepts. The players start at the discovery of the X-ray move to Marie Curie's radium experiments one of the characters states "I suppose Marie Curie is like a mother to us" learn about the invention of Wilson's cloud chamber before being introduced to man-made radiation the splitting of the atom the invention of the cyclotron and the idea of a nuclear chain reaction. The centre of the board advocates for nuclear energy being used for good with the slogan "No more Hiroshimas!". Yukawa Hideki 1907-1987 received the Nobel Prize in 1949 for predicting the existence of mesons carrying the strong nuclear force. Colour paper game board 529 x 754 mm folding to 267 x 178. Text in Japanese. With original colour pictorial wrapper 255 x 181 mm. Board bright creased where folded; short closed tear to wrapper at head: a near-fine copy in like wrapper. unknown