Online Journalism Awards Recognize Pulitzer Center-Supported Projects

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A Pulitzer Center-supported documentary on the 1945 atomic bombings won a 2026 Online Journalism Award.

What Japan’s Atom Bomb Survivors Have Taught Us About the Dangers of Nuclear War, by grantee Scott Michels, of Retro Report, won in the Digital Video Storytelling, Short Form category. The film examines the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings’ impact on survivors’ lives decades later.

“Our objective was to create an intimate and immersive story that took viewers inside the experiences of the survivors, known in Japan as hibakusha,” according to a description of the project on the OJA website.

The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the only time nuclear weapons have been used in war. To produce the film, Retro Report invested time into creating trusted relationships with survivors and worked for weeks to find sources in the United States and Japan.

“Many hibakusha endured lifelong illnesses and faced discrimination; some have lost their own children to cancer and other diseases, unsure whether radiation exposure caused these deaths. Many became activists against the use of nuclear weapons, aware that soon there will be no one left with a first-hand memory of the horror of a nuclear attack,” according to the OJA website.

Watch the documentary here.

In addition, a Pulitzer Center-supported project about AI and antibiotic development was named a finalist in the OJA category Topical Reporting on Artificial Intelligence for Medium-Sized Newsrooms.

The project is titled How Computers Can Conquer Superbugs on the Pulitzer Center's website. It looks at how scientists are leveraging artificial intelligence to develop new antibiotics to combat deadly superbugs.

“Old antibiotics are losing their effectiveness—and new ones aren’t being discovered fast enough,” according to the project description. The project was published by the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Online Journalism Awards, which honor excellence in digital journalism, are handed out by the Online News Association. See other winners and finalists by clicking here.