This educational board game about China-Japan relations was created for a Social Studies school project.

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The basic idea was that you had three pieces — a handshake representing diplomacy, a cannon representing military power, and a crown representing sovereignty. Each turn you drew a card from the event deck, then chose one of the outcomes to move your pieces across the game board. You would immediately draw another card if you landed on the Turning Point space. The first player to have two pieces at the finish line would win the game.

I created this game when I was 15 and didn’t have a great grasp of East Asian geopolitics. Looking back, I realize that the country of China is represented by the flag of only one of the modern states claiming the territory (not ideal) and the country of Japan is represented by the Imperial Japanese war flag (also not ideal). If I were to make it again, I would represent China and Japan with less controversial symbols, like a dragon for China and a chrysanthemum for Japan.