It annoys me that they can't even make the effort to have the game resemble...

I'm currently reading a cartoon story called Barefoot Gen. It's a tragic story about a poor boy and his family living in Japan during the aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing.
Early on, there is a scene with some officials playing go. The board is very simply drawn though, (maybe 9x6) with only one stone on one of the images.
There may be more go parts later on as well. I am only on volume 1.

Is that the Atom Bomb game?

He said "chess" but it was definitely a goban and a go stone.

This is a bit ambiguous. Could you be more specific:
Are you reading the original Japanese manga in Japanese, or a version translated into English?
Did the character say (a) "chess" (with Rooks and Pawns), or (b) "shogi", or (c) something else ?

In other words, if you are reading an English version of the manga, and the text reads "chess,"
then we don't know whether the original Japanese version deliberately meant "chess" despite
the goban and Go stones (unlikely), or, whether the English translator made a mistake
when converting the original Japanese text from "Go" to "chess" (likely).

That would be so cool to see! (Though I imagine that the stones in the planter might keep mysteriously disappearing and need to be refilled.)

Now he must survive chaos, violence, suspicion, and betrayal while trying to achieve his ultimate goal of satori-the possibility of true understanding and harmony with the world.

Hmm, Nicholai Hel, that somehow rings the bell