Matthew Saito

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Matthew Saito is currently a third year student at Loyola Marymount University, majoring in Finance and minoring in Philosophy, with an emphasis in Business Law. He plans to go to law school to work in either the civil rights or business law field. Currently, he's the Nikkei Community Internship (NCI) intern for the Japanese American Bar Association and the Japanese American National Museum. NCI is an internship program designed to allow interns to make their mark in the Japanese American community through their work in impactful projects, meeting of community leaders, and sharpening of professional skills. As an intern, he hopes to help the Japanese American community and gain the skills to make positive change within it in his future career.

Updated July 2020

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The Experience of an NCI Intern During a World Pandemic

Por Matthew Saito
7 Sep 2020

Everyone can agree that 2020 is a year of unprecedented circumstances. With COVID-19 forcing the world to stay at home, the world as we know it changed forever. With the struggle to maintain business, many companies, organizations, and businesses had to shut down their internship programs for the summer. However, the Nikkei Community Internship (NCI) program pushed through all of these obstacles and did whatever it took to ensure that their program would still take place. I will be forever grateful for all of the work that they have done to allow this program to continue this summer. All of t…

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Chiyoko Sakamoto, a Trailblazer and Innovator of the Nikkei Community

Por Matthew Saito
31 Ago 2020

Chiyoko Sakamoto was an innovator in her day, and a trailblazer for the Nikkei community. Sakamoto was the first Japanese American female lawyer in California, and throughout her career, she uplifted the Nikkei community in ways that still have ramifications today. In this article, I will outline my research process, outline my goals, and highlight what I learned by working on this project. As a Nikkei Community Internship intern, I was assigned to work with the Japanese American Bar Association and the Japanese American National Museum. Chiyoko Sakamoto was one of the founders of the Japa…

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The JABA Legacy Project: Mia Yamamoto—A Leader Who Defined the Nikkei Community - Part 2

Por Matthew Saito
17 Ago 2020

Read Part 1 >> After law school, Yamamoto began working for legal aid and eventually worked as a public defender for the Los Angeles Public Defender’s Office. One issue that had a major influence on her while working as a public defender was the death penalty. Yamamoto worked to abolish the death penalty, a rule that she found to be unfair and something that gave too much power to people in the justice system. Yamamoto believed that the justice system did not have enough precision or reliability to allow humans to have the confidence to make a decision about whether or not a pers…

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The JABA Legacy Project: Mia Yamamoto—A Leader Who Defined the Nikkei Community - Part 1

Por Matthew Saito
16 Ago 2020

“What we do for money will support us, what we do for free will define us." – Mia Yamamoto Mia Yamamoto is a Japanese American, transgender attorney who has faced adversity throughout her life, but never backed down from it. Her lifelong commitment to equality and civil rights has made her a leader within the field of law and social justice. At a time when there were very few Japanese American lawyers working within the criminal justice system, she stood up for Japanese Americans and all minorities, to bring them together and to amplify their voices within their communities,…

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Kizuna 2020: Bondad y solidaridad nikkei durante la pandemia de COVID-19

America’s Ugly History of Xenophobia Resurges with COVID-19

Por Matthew Saito
3 Ago 2020

If there’s anything that COVID-19 revealed, it is that xenophobia never went away; it was just hidden. With the rise of COVID-19 cases, hate crimes targeting Asians have increased after having decreased in the 21st century. Xenophobia is the fear or hatred of foreigners, people from different cultures or strangers.1 It is the dislike or fear of the customs of people culturally different from oneself. It’s important to note that xenophobia is very similar to racism. However, it differs from racism because racism is rooted in the belief that race is the primary determinant of human…