Wilfred Burchett | |
|---|---|
 Burchett in the 1970s | |
| Born | Wilfred Graham Burchett 16 September 1911 |
| Died | 27 September 1983 (aged 72) |
| Resting place | Central Sofia Cemetery |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Spouses | Erna Lewy, née Hammer
(m. 1938; div. 1948)Vesselina (Vessa) Ossikovska
(m. 1949) |
| Children | 4 |
| Relatives | Stephanie Alexander (niece) |
Wilfred Graham Burchett (16 September 1911 – 27 September 1983) was an Australian journalist known for being the first western journalist to report from Hiroshima after the dropping of the atomic bomb, and for his reporting from "the other side" during the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
Burchett began his journalism at the start of World War II, during which he reported from China, Burma and Japan and covered the war in the Pacific. After the war he reported on the trials in Hungary, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and on Cambodia under Pol Pot. During the Korean war he investigated and supported claims by the North Korean government that the US had used germ warfare. He was the first western journalist to interview Yuri Gagarin after Gagarin's historic first flight into outer space. He played a role in prompting the first significant Western relief for Cambodia after its liberation by Vietnam in 1979.
He was a politically engaged anti-imperialist who always placed himself amongst the people and events about whom he was reporting. His reporting antagonised both the American and Australian governments and he was effectively exiled from Australia for almost 20 years before the incoming Whitlam government granted him a new passport.