USCDornsife: Stories of Immigration
Photo Courtesy of USC Dornsife
A plaque near a series of shops on First Street in Little Tokyo stands as a reminder of family history for one USC Dornsife student.
It honors the area’s original shopkeepers, including Chiyo Machikawa, a jewelry store owner. She was the great grandmother of Natalie Yee, a junior studying psychology. Machikawa was denied citizenship for years, even after she had married a Japanese-American and had crossed the ocean to join him.