Speaker to talk about human rights provisions in the Japan’s Postwar Constitution

Beate Sirota Gordon, who helped write Japan’s new constitution after the end of WWII, will speak at UF on March 24 in Turlington  L07, from 6-8 p.m. The program is presented by the Association for Asian Studies, the George A. Smathers Libraries and the Department of Asian Studies. There is no charge and the public is invited to attend.

Gordon grew up in Japan before WWII.  She became fluent in Japanese (and four other languages). She returned to Japan at the war’s end, and became a member of Douglas MacArthur’s staff. She was asked by General MacArthur to serve on a committee to write a new constitution for Japan. The committee did just that, in nine days, using only resources available in Japan. Gordon was 22 at the time, and the only woman on the committee. The new constitution gave legal rights to Japanese women for the first time and has remained essentially unchanged since then. Gordon will talk about her experiences in Japan, the impact of the constitution and the importance of activism. For more information, call Hikaru Nakano at Smathers Libraries, 273-2727, or Pat Bartlett at Asian Studies, 392-2464.