Editing Beate Sirota Gordon (section)

==World War II and Japan==
During [[World War II]], Sirota was completely cut off from her parents in Japan. She later said that in the U.S. in 1940, she was one of only sixty-five [[Caucasian race|Caucasians]] who were fluent in [[Japanese language|Japanese]].<ref name = "two">Gordon, Beate Sirota. Commencement address at [[Mills College]], May 14, 2011. "Sotomayor, Denzel Washington, GE CEO Speak to Graduates," C-SPAN (US). May 30, 2011; retrieved 2011-05-30.</ref> During the war, she worked for the [[United States Office of War Information|Office of War Information]] in the [[Foreign Broadcast Information Service]] of the [[Federal Communications Commission]]. She also worked for ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine.<ref name="one"/>

As soon as the war ended, Sirota went to Japan in search of her parents, who survived the war as internees in [[Karuizawa, Nagano]].<ref name="one"/> On Christmas Eve, 1945,<ref name="NYT 20130101" /> she was the first civilian woman to arrive in post-war Japan. Assigned to the Political Affairs staff, she worked for [[Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers]] (SCAP) [[Douglas MacArthur]]'s occupation army as a translator. In addition to Japanese, she was fluent in English, German, French, and Russian.<ref name="Forward" />

When the U.S. began drafting a new [[Constitution of Japan#Drafting process|constitution for Japan]] in February 1946,<ref name="NYT 20130101" /> Sirota was enlisted to help and was assigned to the subcommittee dedicated to writing the section of the constitution devoted to [[civil rights]].<ref name="one"/> She was one of only two women in the larger group, the other being economist [[Eleanor Hadley]]. Sirota played an integral role, drafting the language regarding legal equality between men and women in Japan,<ref name=Mainichi /> including Articles 14 and 24 on Equal Rights and Women's Civil Rights. Article 14 states, in part: "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". Article 24 includes:

<blockquote>Marriage shall be based only on the mutual consent of both sexes and it shall be maintained through mutual cooperation with the equal rights of husband and wife as a basis. 2) With regard to choice of spouse, property rights, inheritance, choice of domicile, divorce and other matters pertaining to marriage and the family, laws shall be enacted from the standpoint of individual dignity and the essential equality of the sexes.</blockquote>

These additions to the constitution were vital to women's rights in Japan. "Japanese women were historically treated like chattel; they were property to be bought and sold on a whim," Gordon said in 1999.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.smh.com.au/national/obituaries/feminist-secretly-wrote-part-of-japans-constitution-20130113-2cnd4.html | work=The Sydney Morning Herald | title=Feminist secretly wrote part of Japan's constitution}}</ref>

Sirota, as interpreter on MacArthur's staff, was the only woman present during the negotiations between the Japanese Steering Committee and the American team.

In 1947, Sirota was a target of Major General [[Charles A. Willoughby]]'s year-long investigation of [[left wing|leftist]] infiltration, in which he tried to construct a case against Sirota, charging her with advancing the [[Communism|Communist]] cause within the new government of Japan.<ref>Bendersky, p. 400.</ref>