Like most daily newspaper photojournalists, I’ve covered my fair share of ribbon-cutting ceremonies and grand openings. I know of some photographers and editors who have an unwritten rule never to shoot the actual ribbon being cut. I disagree. It’s part of the ceremony, why not bang it out and move on to the challenge of finding something more interesting? If the ceremony is a bust, don’t stay for the punch and cookies. Below is one event I shot for the National Park Service, covering the grand opening, and ribbon cutting, of course, of the Minidoka National Historic Site in Jerome, Idaho. I truly enjoyed covering it. Each new interpretive display became a sad but fascinating history lesson for me. Getting to photograph and speak with people incarcerated at the camp during WWII made it worthwhile. And this time, cookies and punch served afterward tided me over for the long ride home to Boise.

Chief of Interpretation and Education Hanako Wakatsuki, right, along with others, raise the flag before the start of the grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony held at the Minidoka National Historic Site in Jerome, Idaho on Saturday, February 22, 2020. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
A quote by Frank Kitamoto, who was 2 years old when he was sent to the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California, resides above the entrance to the new visitors center. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
Idaho Gov. Brad Little, second from left, celebrates as he and others cut a ribbon to signify the opening of the new Minidoka National Historic Site visitor center in Jerome, Idaho on Saturday, February 22, 2020. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
Attendees speak during the grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony held at the Minidoka National Historic Site in Jerome, Idaho on Saturday, February 22, 2020. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
An attendee reads the hundreds of names that were interned at Minidoka, during the grand opening ceremony of the visitor center at National Historic Site in Jerome, Idaho on Saturday, February 22, 2020. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
An internee and her grandaughter look at a display during the grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony held at the Minidoka National Historic Site in Jerome, Idaho on Saturday, February 22, 2020. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
An attendee looks over a display during the grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony held at the Minidoka National Historic Site in Jerome, Idaho on Saturday, February 22, 2020. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
Crowds mingle and talk during the grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony held at the Minidoka National Historic Site in Jerome, Idaho on Saturday, February 22, 2020. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
Items on display inside the new visitor center at the Minidoka National Historic Site in Jerome, Idaho on Saturday, February 22, 2020. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
Items on display inside the new visitor center at the Minidoka National Historic Site in Jerome, Idaho on Saturday, February 22, 2020. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
Attendees watch a looped movie during the grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony held at the Minidoka National Historic Site in Jerome, Idaho on Saturday, February 22, 2020. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
Robert Hirai, left, Honorary Consul General of Japan for Idaho, talks with Idaho Gov. Brad Little during the grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony held at the Minidoka National Historic Site in Jerome, Idaho on Saturday, February 22, 2020. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
Mia Russell, Executive Director of the Friends of Minidoka, left, and Hanako Wakatsuki, chief of interpretation and education at Minidoka National Historic Site, pose for a photo during the grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony held at the Minidoka National Historic Site in Jerome, Idaho on Saturday, February 22, 2020. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
Attendees take a tour of th grounds following the grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony held at the Minidoka National Historic Site in Jerome, Idaho on Saturday, February 22, 2020. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon

I got the NPS gig because of images shot on a freelance assignment for The Conservation Fund. Below is a selection of those photographs, shot on Saturday, July 28, 2018 in Hunt, Idaho. Wildfires burning farther west produced a strange but becoming all too familiar yellow haze well past sunrise.

The moon sets behind the reproduction guard tower which stands at the entrance to Minidoka National Historic Site on Saturday, July 28, 2018, in Hunt, Idaho. Between August 1942 and October 1945, nearly 9,500 Japanese Americans from Portland, Oregon, Seattle and the surrounding areas were interned at Minidoka. When the National Park Service established the Minidoka National Historic Site in 2001, it included only a fraction of the original 950-acre core of the camp. In 2011, The Conservation Fund protected nearly 140 more acres: the former site of the internment camp’s fire station, water tower, military police headquarters, barracks blocks 21 and 22 and portions of adjacent blocks. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
What remains of the original guard shack, left, and visitors center, at Minidoka National Historic Site on Saturday, July 28, 2018, in Hunt, Idaho. Between August 1942 and October 1945, nearly 9,500 Japanese Americans from Portland, Oregon, Seattle and the surrounding areas were interned at Minidoka. When the National Park Service established the Minidoka National Historic Site in 2001, it included only a fraction of the original 950-acre core of the camp. In 2011, The Conservation Fund protected nearly 140 more acres: the former site of the internment camp’s fire station, water tower, military police headquarters, barracks blocks 21 and 22 and portions of adjacent blocks. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
A reproduction of the three-panel Minidoka Relocation Camp Honor Roll sits across from the entrance to Minidoka National Historic Site on Saturday, July 28, 2018, in Hunt, Idaho. Between August 1942 and October 1945, nearly 9,500 Japanese Americans from Portland, Oregon, Seattle and the surrounding areas were interned at Minidoka. When the National Park Service established the Minidoka National Historic Site in 2001, it included only a fraction of the original 950-acre core of the camp. In 2011, The Conservation Fund protected nearly 140 more acres: the former site of the internment camp’s fire station, water tower, military police headquarters, barracks blocks 21 and 22 and portions of adjacent blocks. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
A barrack, right, and mess hall from Block 22 at Minidoka National Historic Site on Saturday, July 28, 2018, in Hunt, Idaho. Between August 1942 and October 1945, nearly 9,500 Japanese Americans from Portland, Oregon, Seattle and the surrounding areas were interned at Minidoka. When the National Park Service established the Minidoka National Historic Site in 2001, it included only a fraction of the original 950-acre core of the camp. In 2011, The Conservation Fund protected nearly 140 more acres: the former site of the internment camp’s fire station, water tower, military police headquarters, barracks blocks 21 and 22 and portions of adjacent blocks. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
Residents of Block 22, pictured in a National Park Service exhibit panel at Minidoka National Historic Site on Saturday, July 28, 2018, in Hunt, Idaho. A barracks, original to the site and brought back again from the Jerome County Fairgrounds, sits in the background. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
The sun rises above Fire Station #1 at Minidoka National Historic Site on Saturday, July 28, 2018, in Hunt, Idaho. Between August 1942 and October 1945, nearly 9,500 Japanese Americans from Portland, Oregon, Seattle and the surrounding areas were interned at Minidoka. When the National Park Service established the Minidoka National Historic Site in 2001, it included only a fraction of the original 950-acre core of the camp. In 2011, The Conservation Fund protected nearly 140 more acres: the former site of the internment camp’s fire station, water tower, military police headquarters, barracks blocks 21 and 22 and portions of adjacent blocks. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
The sun rises above Fire Station #1 at Minidoka National Historic Site on Saturday, July 28, 2018, in Hunt, Idaho. Between August 1942 and October 1945, nearly 9,500 Japanese Americans from Portland, Oregon, Seattle and the surrounding areas were interned at Minidoka. When the National Park Service established the Minidoka National Historic Site in 2001, it included only a fraction of the original 950-acre core of the camp. In 2011, The Conservation Fund protected nearly 140 more acres: the former site of the internment camp’s fire station, water tower, military police headquarters, barracks blocks 21 and 22 and portions of adjacent blocks. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
Inside the Block 22 barrack at Minidoka National Historic Site on Saturday, July 28, 2018, in Hunt, Idaho. Between August 1942 and October 1945, nearly 9,500 Japanese Americans from Portland, Oregon, Seattle and the surrounding areas were interned at Minidoka. When the National Park Service established the Minidoka National Historic Site in 2001, it included only a fraction of the original 950-acre core of the camp. In 2011, The Conservation Fund protected nearly 140 more acres: the former site of the internment camp’s fire station, water tower, military police headquarters, barracks blocks 21 and 22 and portions of adjacent blocks. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
John Herrmann’s home, now the visitor center, at Minidoka National Historic Site on Saturday, July 28, 2018, in Hunt, Idaho. Between August 1942 and October 1945, nearly 9,500 Japanese Americans from Portland, Oregon, Seattle and the surrounding areas were interned at Minidoka. When the National Park Service established the Minidoka National Historic Site in 2001, it included only a fraction of the original 950-acre core of the camp. In 2011, The Conservation Fund protected nearly 140 more acres: the former site of the internment camp’s fire station, water tower, military police headquarters, barracks blocks 21 and 22 and portions of adjacent blocks. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
A reproduction baseball field at Minidoka National Historic Site on Saturday, July 28, 2018, in Hunt, Idaho. There were at least a dozen such fields at the time of incarceration. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
What remains of a water tower at Minidoka National Historic Site on Saturday, July 28, 2018, in Hunt, Idaho. Between August 1942 and October 1945, nearly 9,500 Japanese Americans from Portland, Oregon, Seattle and the surrounding areas were interned at Minidoka. When the National Park Service established the Minidoka National Historic Site in 2001, it included only a fraction of the original 950-acre core of the camp. In 2011, The Conservation Fund protected nearly 140 more acres: the former site of the internment camp’s fire station, water tower, military police headquarters, barracks blocks 21 and 22 and portions of adjacent blocks. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
The root cellar at Minidoka National Historic Site on Saturday, July 28, 2018, in Hunt, Idaho. The cellar was one of several built by Minidoka internees. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
A water spigot sits in an abandoned field at Minidoka National Historic Site on Saturday, July 28, 2018, in Hunt, Idaho. Between August 1942 and October 1945, nearly 9,500 Japanese Americans from Portland, Oregon, Seattle and the surrounding areas were interned at Minidoka. When the National Park Service established the Minidoka National Historic Site in 2001, it included only a fraction of the original 950-acre core of the camp. In 2011, The Conservation Fund protected nearly 140 more acres: the former site of the internment camp’s fire station, water tower, military police headquarters, barracks blocks 21 and 22 and portions of adjacent blocks. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
Land owner and rancher Dean Dimond, 46, along with his sons Logan, 13, in red, and Treg, 11, and their dog Bandit, inspect what remains of a rock garden construction by Japanese American internees. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
Landowner and rancher Dean Dimond, 46, along with his sons Logan, 13, in red, and Treg, 11, and their dog Bandit, at Minidoka National Historic Site on Saturday, July 28, 2018, in Hunt, Idaho. Land currently being irrigated at left belonged to John Herrmann, and land to the right of the dirt road belonged to Tennessee Robinson. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
Landowner and rancher Dean Dimond, 46, along with his sons Logan, 13, in red, and Treg, 11, and their dog Bandit, at Minidoka National Historic Site on Saturday, July 28, 2018 in Hunt, Idaho. Dimond farms the land behind him, purchased by The Conservation Fund. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon
A hawk takes flight from the reproduction barbed-wire fence at Minidoka National Historic Site on Saturday, July 28, 2018, in Hunt, Idaho. Between August 1942 and October 1945, nearly 9,500 Japanese Americans from Portland, Oregon, Seattle and the surrounding areas were interned at Minidoka. When the National Park Service established the Minidoka National Historic Site in 2001, it included only a fraction of the original 950-acre core of the camp. In 2011, The Conservation Fund protected nearly 140 more acres: the former site of the internment camp’s fire station, water tower, military police headquarters, barracks blocks 21 and 22 and portions of adjacent blocks. Photo by Richard Alan Hannon

Further Reading

  • See The Conservation Fund’s page about Minidoka here.
  • Read The National Park Service page on Minidoka here.
  • The Friends of Minidoka publishes an extensive and informative site here.
  • Look through what the National Archives has on the subject here.
  • Finally, I highly recommend searching out and getting a copy of photographer Teresa Tamura’s book Minidoka: An American Concentration Camp. Read her blog here.