Evening with Beate Sirota Gordon - Campion Hall - Seattle UniversityNEW

An Evening with Beate Sirota Gordon
The Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality at Seattle University School of Law is pleased to host an evening with Beate Sirota Gordon, author of the women's rights clause in Japan's Constitution.  This event will be open to general public.

Ms. Gordon was a member of the 25-member Constitutional Assembly created in Japan in 1946 by General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander in post-World War II Occupied Japan.  At the age of 22, Gordon attended a secret meeting between American and Japanese officials about the women's rights clause she wrote for Japan's new Constitution, which guarantees women equal rights with men and remains unamended today.  Japan's Constitution also guarantees Japan's peaceful roles in world affairs and democracy.

Gordon was born in Vienna and arrived in Japan in 1929, when her father, world-renowned pianist Leo Sirota, became a professor at the Imperial Academy of Music in Tokyo.  Before the war started in 1941, Gordon came to the United States to attend college, worked for U.S. Office of War Information, and did research on Japan for TIME Magazine.  She returned to Tokyo in 1945 as the first civilian woman attached to the Occupation Army.  She returned to the United States, where she married and has pursued her primary interest in performing arts.  In 1970, she became Director of the Performing Arts Program of the Asia Society in New York and became Director of Performances, Films, and Lectures in 1987.

Observing growing global military tensions, Gordon has decided to spread word about Japan's Constitution-the women's rights and peace clauses in particular-as a lesson for the world today.  Japanese media has reported Gordon's contributions through her bestselling book The Only Woman in the Room, TV, radio, newspaper, and documentary films.  In the United States, Gordon has appeared on ABC Television and in numerous newspaper and magazine articles, including in The New York Times, and has been invited to speak at numerous universities such as Columbia, Cornell, and Harvard Universities, and women's organizations.  Gordon is a recipient of numerous awards, including the American Dance Guild Award (1978) and the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold Rays with Rosette from the Japanese government (1998).

The Korematsu Center proudly brings this important lecture to Seattle with generous support from the Atsuhiko and Ina Goodwin Tateuchi Foundation.  For further information regarding this event, please email or call Junsen Ohno at ohnoj@seattleu.edu or 206.398.4283.  RSVP is required.

The Korematsu Center for Law and Equality works to advance justice through knowledge and advocacy.

Date
Thursday, September 22, 2011; RSVP is required by September 15, 2011

Time
Lecture:  5:00 p.m.
Reception: 6:00 p.m.

Location
Campion Ballroom, Seattle University