The Only Woman in the Room: A Memoir of Japan, Human Rights, and the Arts
Language: English
Published by University Of Chicago Press, 2014
- Softcover
- New

Seller: Kennys Bookshop and Art Galleries Ltd., Galway, GY, IrelandKennys Bookshop and Art Galleries Ltd.
AbeBooks seller since February 27, 2001
Condition: New
£ 19.73
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Add to basketItem description from seller
Beate Sirota Gordon was born in Vienna, but in 1929 her family moved to Japan so that her father, a noted pianist, could teach, and she grew up speaking German, English, and Japanese. In 1946, at age twenty-two, she helped to draft the new postwar Japanese constitution. This title chronicles the unlikely string of events that led her to that role. Num Pages: 176 pages, 47 halftones. BIC Classification: 1FPJ; 3JJPG; BM; HBJF; HBLW3; JPVH. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 229 x 162 x 10. Weight in Grams: 258. . 2014. Paperback. . . . .
Seller Inventory # V9780226132518
- Title
- The Only Woman in the Room: A Memoir of Japan, Human Rights, and the Arts
- Author
- Beate Sirota Gordon
- Publisher
- University Of Chicago Press
- Publication year
- 2014
- Condition
- New
- Binding
- Soft cover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 022613251X
- ISBN 13
- 9780226132518
In 1946, at age twenty-two, Beate Sirota Gordon helped to draft the new postwar Japanese Constitution. The Only Woman in the Room chronicles how a daughter of Russian Jews became the youngest woman to aid in the rushed, secret drafting of a constitution; how she almost single-handedly ensured that it would establish the rights of Japanese women; and how, as a fluent speaker of Japanese and the only woman in the room, she assisted the American negotiators as they worked to persuade the Japanese to accept the new charter.
Sirota was born in Vienna, but in 1929 her family moved to Japan so that her father, a noted pianist, could teach, and she grew up speaking German, English, and Japanese. Russian, French, Italian, Latin, and Hebrew followed, and at fifteen Sirota was sent to complete her education at Mills College in California. The formal declaration of World War II cut Gordon off from her parents, and she supported herself by working for a CBS listening post in San Francisco that would eventually become part of the FCC. Translating was one of Sirota’s many talents, and when the war ended, she was sent to Japan as a language expert to help the American occupation forces. When General MacArthur suddenly created a team that included Sirota to draft the new Japanese Constitution, he gave them just eight days to accomplish the task. Colonel Roest said to Beate Sirota, “You’re a woman, why don’t you write the women’s rights section?”; and she seized the opportunity to write into law guarantees of equality unparalleled in the US Constitution to this day.
But this was only one episode in an extraordinary life, and when Gordon died in December 2012, words of grief and praise poured from artists, humanitarians, and thinkers the world over. Illustrated with forty-seven photographs, The Only Woman in the Room captures two cultures at a critical moment in history and recounts, after a fifty-year silence, a life lived with purpose and courage. This edition contains a new afterword by Nicole A. Gordon and an elegy by Geoffrey Paul Gordon.
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About the Author
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Kennys Bookshop and Art Galleries Ltd.
Galway, GY, Ireland
AbeBooks seller since February 27, 2001
Shipping rates from Ireland to U.S.A.
| Item | 12 to 22 business days | 10 to 20 business days |
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Kennys.ie is the largest exporter of books from Ireland currently exporting to approximately 100 countries around the world. Kennys Bookshop houses hundreds of thousands of books and specialises in collection development and library services, supplying booksellers and state and university libraries on a global scale including the U.S.A.,Japan and Europe. Kennys.ie is Ireland's Largest Online Bookshop.
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Asia, All Aspects of the Irish Experience, Irish Literature, Irish History, Human Rights, International Espionage, History of Ideas and Human Thought, Labour History, Jewish Studies and the Holocaust. Gureilla Movements., Russian and Soviet History and Literature. Womens Studies and Feminism.Seller's business information
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