Award-winning broadcast journalist David Ono, who is co-anchor of ABC7 Eyewitness News in Los Angeles, received the Irene Hirano Inouye Award.
Ono will be the second recipient of this award, provided by the UCLA Paul and Hirano Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies, UCLA Newsroom reported.
“We are delighted to honor David Ono, an outstanding journalist who has done in-depth coverage of everything from royal weddings to climate change to race in America,” said Hitoshi Abe, director of the UCLA Terasaki Center and a professor of architecture and urban design, to UCLA Newsroom.
Ono, who joined ABC7 in 1996, has covered several historical events and milestones including Hurricane Katrina, Haiti’s earthquake and Japan’s tsunami, according to ABC7.
He has previously won 10 Edward R. Murrow awards, 31 Emmys, two RTDNA National Unity Awards, six AAJA National Journalism Awards and was honored with the Distinguished Journalist Award by the Society of Professional Journalists. He was also declared by the LA Press Club the journalist of the year, as well as the lifetime achievement award, ABC7 reported.
“David’s documentaries “Witness: The Legacy of Heart Mountain” and “Defining Courage,” which deal respectively with Japanese Americans held in the Heart Mountain camp in Wyoming and those who served as soldiers in segregated units during World War II, have made Japanese American history tangible to wide audiences,” said Abe to UCLA Newsroom. “His service to the Japanese American community is proof of the enduring historical and cultural ties between our countries.”
Ono will soon deliver a speech in honor of Hirano Inouye, a Japanese American philanthropist and social activist, whom this award is named after. This will take place at the residence of the consul general of Japan in Los Angeles, UCLA Newsroom reported.
Hirano Inouye, born in 1948 and died in 2020, was pivotal in strengthening US and Japanese relations both domestically and globally.
“I knew Irene for many years. She was an innovator who saw the future and knew what it needed,” said Ono to UCLA Newsroom. “Irene was indescribably brilliant and focused, yet did it with warmth and kindness. To receive an award in her name is the ultimate compliment. I will always aspire to make her proud.”
AsAmNews is published by the non-profit, Asian American Media Inc.
We are supported through donations and such charitable organizations as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. A big thank you to all our readers who supported our year-end giving campaign. You helped us not only reach our goal, you busted through it. Donations to Asian American Media Inc and AsAmNews are tax-deductible. It’s never too late to give.
Please also follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and X.