for delivering fast and unmatched video on back-to-back disasters in Japan last week, including user generated content showing the devastating strength of Typhoon Jebi, and for multiple edits, well ahead of video competition, of a powerful Japanese earthquake and deadly landslides. https://bit.ly/2p48SHYhttps://bit.ly/2CUme3hhttps://bit.ly/2MwhWyn
produced a string of visually driven exclusives to feed global curiosity about how Japan has fared a decade after one of history’s worst tragedies — the massive earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown that upended the lives of millions in 2011.Nuga and Hoshiko spent time on the battered northeastern coast while Yamaguchi, Tanaka and Komae made their way into the area around the Fukushima nuclear plant. The trips produced compelling before-and-after images of the wreckage, and all-formats vignettes of the lives of the survivors with explainers, galleries, videos and exclusive stories. Among the highlights were the moving story of a man who learned to dive so he could search, week after week, for for the remains of his wife, and gripping visual essays of the still-scarred landscape of northeast Japan, the eerie no-go zones near the nuclear plant and a hotel that has done weekly bus tours for hundreds of thousands of visitors interested in seeing the ravaged landscape. AP’s video showing was particularly strong, including footage of people symbolically searching the beach for bodies of the missing and quick live views of commemorative ceremonies across the country.https://bit.ly/3vBYckXhttps://bit.ly/38ONuxMhttps://bit.ly/2Q62S20https://bit.ly/3f1zFjthttps://bit.ly/3vyESEVhttps://bit.ly/3ttHTVm
Los Angeles-based reporter Brian Melley reported the initial news of a human skeleton discovered near California’s second-highest peak in 2019, and he broke the news connecting the find to the World War II internment of 110,000 people of Japanese descent. But Melley didn't stop there. He persisted in tracking down family members of Giichi Matsumura, whose body had lain in the mountains for almost 75 years.
Melley found and earned the trust of Matsumura’s granddaughter Lori. In this beautifully elegiac exclusive he reveals how the family’s life in the U.S. was abruptly upended by the Japanese internment, the tragedy compounded by the death of Giichi and the inability to give him a proper burial. It was Lori Matsumura who managed to bring him home for reburial 75 years later, reuniting three generations in a Santa Monica cemetery.
For his determination to follow Giichi Matsumura’s narrative to conclusion, breaking news while telling one family’s poignant story, Melley wins AP’s Best of the States award.
for their collaboration across continents to tell the story of a 93-year-old Oregon vet’s mission to travel to Japan to return a flag he’d taken from a fallen soldier 70 years ago. http://bit.ly/2wy1Wss
How are you guaranteed to get an exclusive if and when researchers locate Japanese ships sunken during the World War II Battle of Midway?
One sure way is to be the only journalist accompanying researchers aboard a vessel in the middle of nowhere in the Pacific. That’s exactly what Hawaii correspondent Caleb Jones did, delivering two exclusive packages on the discovery of warships in northwestern Hawaii, first by convincing the search company to invite only the AP, and then singlehandedly producing the all-formats content from the research ship.
For successfully pitching AP’s reach, then following up with strong storytelling that led to worldwide exclusives, Caleb Jones wins this week’s Best of the States.
for landing a scoop about an effort by a broad group including the 28-nation European Union, the United States, Japan, Australia, Argentina, Israel and four other countries to pressure China to scale back plans for intensive inspections of imports that they say would hamper access to its fast-growing market. http://on-ajc.com/2skMfTt
for delivering compelling photos and key story elements from Nagano, ground zero following Typhoon Hagibis, one of Japan’s worst typhoons in memory. Hong’s photos depicting victims coping with mass destruction in the storm’s wake dominated international play online and in print, including the front page of The Japan Times.https://bit.ly/2Pi6USKhttps://bit.ly/31I0EGq
for their outstanding cross-formats effort to capture and verify the image of former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn who was released on bail after more than three months in custody on charges of understating income. AP’s report on this highly competitive story included strong visuals and live coverage unmatched by other agencies, and ahead of even some Japanese media.https://yhoo.it/2u8fUxChttps://bit.ly/2CfSMC0
Tokyo photographer Jae C. Hong documented in stark black and white the unsettling new norm of Japan’s largest city during the coronavirus pandemic. Struck by the contrast of the white protective masks against the shadowed buildings and backdrops, Hong thought black and white photography would convey the right tone. He produced a stunning package, unique among the global flood of coronavirus images.https://bit.ly/3dsTIE9https://bit.ly/33RxV4Ihttps://bit.ly/2x4TjXE
scored reported beats thanks to careful planning and virus precautions both before and during a trip to Hiroshima for live coverage of the 75th anniversary of the first use of an atomic bomb in World War II.The trio’s coverage, emphasizing the stories of survivors, made an impression, was used by news outlets worldwide. Even major Japanese publications leaned heavily on AP’s coverage, sometimes over the work of their own journalists.https://bit.ly/3gVnPVVhttps://bit.ly/3kJoDQ0https://bit.ly/33T6Tfbhttps://bit.ly/30RwO4Uhttps://bit.ly/3g2i5Zv
dominated international coverage of the fatal shooting of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, delivering fast, comprehensive and exclusive content on one of Japan’s biggest stories in years.The Tokyo staff and colleagues at AP’s Asia hub in Bangkok beat competitive agencies and other international news organizations on urgent developments throughout the day, including the crucial word that Abe had died. AP quickly secured video and photos of the attack and had live video up at the scene of the shooting within minutes of the announcement of Abe’s death, accompanied by text and video obituaries. A full complement of spot enterprise pieces followed on Abe and the issues surrounding his assassination.For days, AP’s coverage featured prominently even on major Japanese news sites, often as an example of the way foreign media was covering the story.Read more
for exclusive photos and video of flooding outside Tokyo. Lee, on assignment in Japan for a PGA golf tournament, was heading back to the hotel on a shuttle bus after rain washed out the second day of the tournament. When he noticed a flooded street in an area east of Tokyo that had been hit hard by a recent typhoon, he reacted quickly, stopping the shuttle bus and leaping out into knee-high flood waters to shoot exclusive photos, video and, later, call in details for the print story. The images were used widely in Korea and Japan, including by major Japanese papers. https://bit.ly/2Pt7ywJ
for a daylong stakeout of a U.S. base in Japan that yielded the only live video feed of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s plane returning from North Korea with three freed American prisoners.https://bit.ly/2rQfx9E
for delivering extensive coverage of a pair of cruise ships, including exclusive video of both scenes. Sopheng Cheang used the Bambuser app to get the first live video out of the Westerdam arriving in Cambodia, 10 hours before any other agency was able to match it. Meanwhile, Foster Klug interviewed a couple quarantined on the Diamond Princess in Yokohama, Japan, establishing a rapport that led to AP receiving video they shot on the ship and throughout their journey to the U.S. Customers relied on the coverage of both ships, which required round-the-clock coverage by the Tokyo bureau and other staffers throughout Asia.https://bit.ly/3bQX7Mahttps://bit.ly/2SEL9gW
for the first on-camera interview with the Brazilian consul general, one of few people to meet with former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn, who was arrested over suspicion of underreporting millions in income. Ghosn, once one of the most powerful men in the business world, was reportedly holding up well during his detention in Japan, and was asking for thrillers to read. https://bit.ly/2QMhP8l
for reporting exclusively that authorities were investigating whether a human skeleton found by hikers beneath California’s second-highest peak were the remains of a Japanese man who went missing from the Manzanar internment camp in the final days of World War II. https://bit.ly/2Puy0px
for revealing that despite mandated reforms, the Pentagon still struggles to provide justice when the children of service members sexually assault each other. Acting on a tip to Dunklin, their story describes the case of a 13-year-old boy accused of molesting at least 10 younger children on a U.S. Air Force base in Japan. The girls’ mothers say Air Force officials showed little urgency to offer counseling or investigate. “How is this OK?” asked a mother who locked her kids indoors. https://bit.ly/2XZXbSf
carried out an exclusive AP interview with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, which broke news during heightened tensions.Read more.
China and the Trump administration had opposing narratives about the early days of the new coronavirus epidemic: China bragged about providing information quickly to the world through the World Health Organization, while the Trump administration accused China and WHO of colluding to hide information.
It took The Associated Press – drawing on recordings, documents and interviews – to tell the definitive story: Rather than colluding with China, WHO itself was being kept in the dark, praising China in public to shake loose information while expressing considerable frustration in private.
AP’s widely praised story, months in the making, was so sensitive that we did not name the two main journalists to avoid blowback in China and to prevent anyone from identifying our sources.
For in-depth reporting that drew back the curtains and punctured the preferred narratives of China, WHO and the Trump administration at the same time, the AP reporters who produced this stunning piece earn Best of the Week honors.
The AP “Nones” team, in a package encompassing a dozen countries on five continents, provided an unprecedented global look at the surge of religiously unaffiliated people, as well as the risks faced by nonbelievers in places where such an outlook remains taboo.Read more
