I hope you’ll tune in this weekend for David Ono’s special ABC7 Eyewitness News documentary airing this weekend for the 40th anniversary of the photojournalist Nick Ut’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Napalm Girl” photo. Kim Phuc, the girl in the photo, recently granted David exclusive interviews for the occasion of the anniversary. David, ABC7 Eyewitness News Anchor and AAJA-LA’s VP of Broadcast, traveled to Vietnam to tell this important story about a photograph which changed the course of world history, and the people behind it.
Nick is a good friend of the Los Angeles Chapter and generously donated a rare print of the famous image– autographed by both Nick and Kim– for our 30th Anniversary Trivia Bowl Live Auction. He received the National AAJA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011.
ABC7 has already aired these related stories which are viewable online:
- Vietnam War photographer Nick Ut recalls Pulitzer Prize-winning shot of girl running from napalm strike
- Kim Phuc, ‘Napalm Girl’ in iconic Vietnam War photo, discusses life-changing moment
The full special airs Saturday, June 2 at 6:30pm.
-Jocelyn “Joz” Wang
President and National Advisory Board Member
Asian American Journalists Association, Los Angeles Chapter
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Saturday, June 2, at 6:30 p.m.
ABC7 Eyewitness News SpecialWitness: The Power of a Picture
Travel with ABC7 Eyewitness News Anchor, David Ono, to Vietnam on the 40th Anniversary of the Pulitzer Prize winning photo “Napalm Girl”, which shows an innocent 9-year-old whose clothes were burned off her body by napalm during the Vietnam War.
A photograph allows us to deeply examine a split second in time. It’s an opportunity to freeze the world and absorb all the emotions, actions, consequences that are attached to that moment. Photographer Nick Ut’s “Napalm Girl” did exactly that. We saw an innocent child whose clothes were burned off her body, running naked, in seething pain. Children, caught in the cross fire, would forever have an indelible face – Kim Phuc.
That moment changed us, providing a sobering clarity to how quickly innocent life can be shattered by war. David Ono travels back to Trang Bang, where, 40 years ago, a 21 year old photographer and a 9 year old girl collide to create one of the most important images of the 20th century. It’s the story of Kim Phuc, Nick Ut and others who are helping to open the world’s eyes to the realities of war.
