By way of our own homage and review, we present here a verbatim interview with Wu Huan on the state of go in Manchuria, from the April 1937 issue. We chose this partly because it will shed some light on a period of go history that has barely been treated in English (though note that this interview still predates by a few years the notorious Two Manchurian Ki-ins problem), and partly because it was a new style of go journalism. But mostly it was chosen to reflect Yasunaga's long and very influential interest in Chinese go.
Wu Huan was the elder brother of Go Seigen. He too was a very strong go player - rated as a Nihon Ki-in 2-dan - , and he also spent a lot of time in Japan, as a student. In addiiton, he was in constant contact with Japanese people through his work in the Interpreting Bureau of the Manchurian Imperial Household Department. Manchuria was then a puppet state run by Japan from Xinjing, or the "new capital" - nowadays known as Shenyang.
Politics suffused every action. Go Seigen himself was caught up in the complicated politics of the time. He had chosen, on advice, to take a Japanese name, by which he is referred to in this interview. Most Japanese then read his name Kure Izumi, though Go has revealed that the correct reading was Go Izumi - a small act of defiance. Go was still a Japanese reading of Chinese Wu, but is classed as Sino-Japanese. Kure is pure Japanese.A reporter from the new magazine caught up with Wu Huan on a short visit to Japan. The reporter's name is not given, but it seems highly likely that it was Yasunaga.