The National Park Service is updating the replica of the WWII Honor Roll located at the front entrance of Minidoka National Historic Site in Jerome, Idaho. The Minidoka NHS staff is accepting applications to add Minidoka WWII veterans to the Honor Roll, if their names have not yet been listed or need to be corrected. Only WWII veterans who have direct family ties to Minidoka are eligible for inclusion. Veterans include those who served between Dec. 7, 1941 and Dec. 31, 1946 in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the Military Intelligence Service, the Women’s Army Corps, the Army Nurse Corps, and/or the Cadet Nurse Corps. The deadline is Jan. 31, 2022.
To review the names on the current Honor Roll list, go to https://go.nps.gov/minidokahonor. To apply, contact Minidoka NHS staff by email (preferred), phone, or mail. Minidoka National Historic Site: MIIN_information@nps.gov, (208) 825-4169, 1428 Hunt Rd. Jerome, Idaho 83338.
The Minidoka Honor Roll has an interesting backstory. The Minidoka NHS website describes the original sign as having been painted by Kenjiro Nomura and Kamekichi Tokita, both professional sign-painters and artists (napost.com, Apr. 2021). Landscaping around the sign was done by Fujitaro Kubota (of present-day Kubota Gardens fame).
As the fate of the original Honor Roll is unknown, its content has been recreated from historical photos; the problem is that all the names on the right panel of the sign are not legible in photos. This explanation provides a clue to any missing names, as the Honor Roll was originally a single sign, to which the side panels were later added. Missing names may therefore be late-war additions.
The current replica sign was made by the Friends of Minidoka in 2011 with a NPS Japanese American Confinement Sites grant.
