Mainichi wins journalism award for 'Hibakusha' A-bomb survivor series

The Mainichi Shimbun's long-running "Hibakusha" series on A-bomb survivors won the 24th Sakata memorial journalism award in the newspaper category on March 22.

The award, given to outstanding reporting from the Kansai region by the Katsuro Sakata memorial journalism foundation, was bestowed on the Hibakusha reporting group's fiscal 2016 work. The series, which started in 2006, was credited with fundamentally altering the way that A-bomb stories were presented, shifting the focus away from so-called "August journalism" around the Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-bomb anniversaries to tell the Hibakushas' stories year-round.

The Mainichi Shimbun's "Hibakusha" project, which gives voice to the bombing survivors, presents a new series of profiles each season. As of autumn 2016, the Mainichi had run 209 Hibakusha stories.

The award praised the series for "reimagining the issue in a seasonal and easy to approach way, and created a vehicle to communicate these stories across borders."