Issue:

Checking on strawberries grown at the temporary housing community. Shinmachi is known for its figs, flatfish, apples and strawberries.
Headlamps light the trail of Mt. Karou on New Years Day;
  • Rain boots line the shelves of Shinchimachi Preschool;
  • Waiting for the New Year sun to rise on Mt. Karou;
  • A tear falls from a child’s eye while wind gusts blow across her face at an AKB 48 charity concert. (The area is known for gusts of heavy wind, known as Karou Oroshi. It was this wind that blew radiation away from the town, just 50km north of the Fukushima Daiichi reactor;
  • Children have morning exercise and a summer homework workshop from 6:30 to 7:00 am.

The winner of this year’s Swadesh Deroy Scholarship is Allison Kwesell, a graduate student at the International Christian University, hailing from the U.S. Ms. Kwesell’s entry was a photo documentary of the town of Shinchimachi, 50 km north of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

Akira Nagakura, chief member of the selection committee, remarked on the high quality of the photographs and the precise captions that captured the life of a Fukushima town. He also said, “The pictures were taken over the course of several trips. This kind of hard work resulted in a report that was of higher quality than the others. It’s the kind of on-the-spot report that journalists respect.”

The annual scholarship, worth ¥300,000 for the First Prize, is given to support university students interested in a career in journalism.