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Shigeaki Mori wins special prize from Japan National Press Club for investigating American soldiers killed in A-bombing

by Kanako Noda, Staff Writer

On April 28, the Japan National Press Club (JNPC) announced the winners of this year’s JNPC prizes and selected Shigeaki Mori, 80, a local historian and A-bomb survivor living in Nishi Ward, Hiroshima as a special prize winner. The top JNPC prize was given to Fumio Matsuo, 83, a journalist. The awards ceremony will take place on May 29.

Mr. Mori was eight years old at the time of the atomic bombing and experienced the attack at a location in Koi-machi (now part of Nishi Ward), about 2.5 kilometers from the hypocenter. While working for a local company, he spent his personal time investigating the American soldiers who were held in Hiroshima as prisoners of war (POWs) at the time of the bombing, and concluded that 12 American soldiers had also been killed in the A-bomb attack. Last May, he and then U.S. President Barack Obama embraced during Mr. Obama’s visit to Hiroshima. His method of investigation, which is comparable to investigative reporting, and his persistence in uncovering the facts of the American POWs, have been widely praised. This is the first time that a JNPC special prize is being given to someone who is not a professional journalist.

Mr. Matsuo has been involved in news coverage of the United States since the time he worked as a writer for Kyodo News. He argued that a true post-war reconciliation between the United States and Japan would be realized through mutual visits to the war-affected sites by the top leaders of both nations, with the U.S. president visiting Hiroshima, the A-bombed city, and the Japanese prime minister visiting Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. As it happened, following Mr. Obama’s visit to Hiroshima, the visit to Pearl Harbor by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was made last December.

The other winner of a JNPC special prize is the news crew from Tulip Television, which reported on the misuse of public funds by members of the Toyama city council.

(Originally published on April 29, 2017)

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