In the early 1900s, nearly half the residents of Mukilteo were Japanese who had come to work in the Crown Lumber Company. =At a time when many mill towns in the Northwest were responding violently to Asian immigrants, the residents of Mukilteo overcame their initial doubts and welcomed the Japanese. Multiple efforts were made to help the newcomers learn English and American customs. For example, special classes were created for the young Japanese-American children so they could be better prepared to enter Mukilteo’s Rosehill School.
When the lumber mill closed in 1930, the Japanese families reluctantly moved to other places to find work. But they never forgot the warm welcome and continuing kindness they had encountered in Mukilteo, even when the friendships could only be maintained through letters to and from the internment camps.
As part of our state’s centennial celebrations in 1989, a Japanese-American wrote a beautiful homage to the warm acceptance of her parents’ generation in Mukilteo. In 2000, a peace crane sculpture was dedicated in honor of the historically harmonious relations in Mukilteo. Mas Odoi, born of immigrant parents in Mukilteo in 1921, was chosen Mukilteo’s “Pioneer of the Year” in 2008, and then honored in 2011 as the Grand Marshall of the Mukilteo Lighthouse Festival Parade.
Mukilteo has been and will remain a safe community. But its security is not based on fear, exclusion, and enmity. Its safety has been and will continue to be anchored in the full acceptance of all our residents. This is who we are.
John and Ann Collier
Mukilteo
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