In Mukilteo’s Centennial Park stands a monument topped with a bronze origami crane, left there as a reminder of the Japanese community that thrived in the early 1900s nearby, in what is known as Japanese Gulch.

The Mukilteo Japanese Memorial, located at 1126 5th St., was erected in 2000 in honor of the harmonious relationship between the pioneering Mukilteo and Japanese communities.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the memorial’s unveiling, the Mukilteo Historical Society and the city of Mukilteo held a Mukilteo Japanese Memorial Remembrance Sunday at its site in Centennial Park.

 “It’s a celebration of our history and of our ties as a community,” MHS President John Petroff said of the remembrance. “We have a real rich history with the Japanese, and most of us in Mukilteo don’t know that.”

In 1903, Crown Lumber Co. invited Japanese immigrants to Mukilteo to work at the sawmill.  The workers built a community for themselves and their families in Japanese Gulch – complete with a clubhouse, playground, garden and pond – and lived there until the sawmill closed in the 1930s during the Great Depression.

“There weren’t enough local people to operate the mill, so after the Japanese were brought in, they basically doubled the size of Mukilteo’s population,” Petroff said.

Speakers at the remembrance told stories of what it was like for the two communities to live side by side in Mukilteo, including Michi Tanabe, Mas Odoi and MHS historical re-enactors and storytellers.

MHS member Sheila McGillivary, as Mukilteo pioneer Alice McGee, told of how Mukilteo welcomed the Japanese children into its schools. McGee was a fourth-grade teacher at Rosehill School in the 1920s.

“It was an absolute delight to have our Japanese pupils in the class because they were all very well-behaved and excellent students,” she said.  “All the students, no matter what their racial background, all interacted and played together.”

MHS member Steve Odoi, as Japanese immigrant Rikimatsu Okamura, told of working for the sawmill and the friendship that developed between the Japanese and their Mukilteo peer.  Okamura is buried in the Mukilteo Pioneer Cemetery.

“The Muktilteans taught us English and piano in their homes, serving us cookies, fudge, apple pie,” he said. “In this community paradise, our sense of loyalty and duty formed strong to endure the most difficult tests of depression and world war hysteria.”

Sen. Paull Shin spoke of the contributions the Japanese made to Mukilteo and the United States.  He noted that Washington state is in the process of turning Japanese Gulch into a park.

“Japanese Gulch is of important historical remembrance to us, [so] we want to preserve that,” he said.  “I feel very, very happy about that situation because this relays our relationship between our communities.”

Students in Serene Lake Elementary’s Sea Otter Choir sang “A New Day” and “We are the People of the 21st Century” by T. Jennings and “Sakura,” a Japanese folk song at the remembrance under the direction of music teacher Pam Bickford.

After their performance, the students gave origami cranes – made by third and fourth graders at Mukilteo Elementary – to an audience of 100.  The origami crane is a symbol of peace and happiness.

Sunday’s remembrance is one of several MHS sesquicentennial celebrations in 2010 marking the 150th anniversary of the founding of Mukilteo.

Go online to http://mukilteohistorical.org for more history on Mukilteo and the Japanese contributions to the city.