Beate Gordon is dead at the age of 89. At the age of 22, she was an interpreter on General Douglas MacArthur's occupation staff in Japan after the war and she managed to get two articles on women's rights inserted into the Japanese Constitution. (Something you won't even find in the U.S. Constitution.) It's a fascinating story and it's told in her obituary in The New York Times. She was a Russian Jew, born in Vienna, who grew up in Japan and came to the U.S. on her own as a teenager. After the war, she did a lot of work at Japan Society and Asia Society in New York. I've heard of her but I never made the connection to her work on the Japanese Constitution.
Here's the obit and I hope you find it fascinating, too:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/02/world ... aries&_r=0
She put women's rights into Japanese constitution
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She put women's rights into Japanese constitution
Last edited by Madara on Wed Jan 02, 2013 12:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: She put women's rights into Japanese constitution
[quote name='Madara' timestamp='1357158595' post='140815']
Beate Gordon is dead at the age of 89. At the age of 22, she was an interpreter on General Douglas MacArthur's occupation staff in Japan after the war and she managed to get two articles on women's rights inserted into the Japanese Constitution. (Something you won't even find in the U.S. Constitution.) It's a fascinating story and it's told in her obituary in The New York Times. She was a Russian Jew, born in Vienna, who grew up in Japan and came to the U.S. on her own as a teenager. After the war, she did a lot of work at Japan Society and Asia Society in New York. I've heard of her but I never made the connection to her work on the Japanese Constitution.
Here's the obit and I hope you find it fascinating, too:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/02/world ... aries&_r=0
[/quote]
I actually heard about this the other day. Its sad how much progress Japan should have made by now when it comes to archaic, sexist ways of thinking and structuring their society, but they still haven't despite many efforts like Beate's.
Beate Gordon is dead at the age of 89. At the age of 22, she was an interpreter on General Douglas MacArthur's occupation staff in Japan after the war and she managed to get two articles on women's rights inserted into the Japanese Constitution. (Something you won't even find in the U.S. Constitution.) It's a fascinating story and it's told in her obituary in The New York Times. She was a Russian Jew, born in Vienna, who grew up in Japan and came to the U.S. on her own as a teenager. After the war, she did a lot of work at Japan Society and Asia Society in New York. I've heard of her but I never made the connection to her work on the Japanese Constitution.
Here's the obit and I hope you find it fascinating, too:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/02/world ... aries&_r=0
[/quote]
I actually heard about this the other day. Its sad how much progress Japan should have made by now when it comes to archaic, sexist ways of thinking and structuring their society, but they still haven't despite many efforts like Beate's.