Beate Sirota Gordon
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Her subcommittee's proposals hauled Japanese women into a brave new world of consensual marriage, property and inheritance rights, and divorce. Another article in which Sirota had a major hand stipulated: "All of the people are equal under the law and there shall be no discrimination in political, economic or social relations because of race, creed, sex, social status or family origin." The constitution came into force in May 1947.
In 1947, the Sirotas moved to the US. The year after, she married Joseph Gordon, who had headed the interpreter-translator unit; they settled in New York.
In 1954 she joined the relaunched Japan Society, working on its student programme – one student she assisted was Yoko Ono – and by 1958 was programming arts events.
By 1960 she was working as an arts consultant for the Asia Society. She eventually directed its Performing Arts Programme for 23 years, starting with breakthrough national tours of Asian artists in 1971-72. She spent time in Burma, Bengal, Sarawak and Indonesia, seeking out traditional arts to feed North American minds. These included Australian Aboriginal sandpainters, Korea's Samul Nori ensemble, the koto player Kimio Eto and Pakistan's Sabri Brothers. In her memoir she declared, "I put all my efforts into trying to communicate the essence of Asian culture to Americans through first-rate, purely traditional art forms."