Editing Beate Sirota Gordon

{{Short description|Austrian and American activist (1923–2012)}}
{{More citations needed|date=May 2024}}
{{Infobox person
|name        = Beate Sirota Gordon
|image       = Beate Sirota Gordon.jpg
|image_size  = 237px
|caption     = Gordon at the Japan Society in 2011
|birth_name  = Beate Sirota
|birth_date  = {{Birth date|1923|10|25}}
|birth_place = Vienna, [[First Austrian Republic|Austria]]
|death_date  = {{nowrap|{{Death date and age|2012|12|30|1923|10|25|mf=yes}}}}
|death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S.<ref name="NYT 20130101">{{cite news|last=Fox|first=Margalit|title=Beate Gordon, Long-Unsung Heroine of Japanese Women's Rights, Dies at 89|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/02/world/asia/beate-gordon-feminist-heroine-in-japan-dies-at-89.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0|newspaper=The New York Times|accessdate=2013-01-02|date=January 1, 2013|quote=Correction: January 4, 2013}}</ref>
|occupation  = Performing arts presenter
|spouse      = {{marriage|Joseph Gordon|1948|2012|end=died}}
|parents     = {{Unbulleted list
| Augustine Horenstein Sirota
| [[Leo Sirota]]
}}
|children    = 2
|relatives   = [[Jascha Horenstein]] (uncle)
|citizenship = [[United States]]<ref name=FIH>{{cite news|last=Azimi|first=Nassrine|title=Constitutionally Sound|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/15/opinion/global/the-Japanese-constitution.html?ref=global-home&_r=0|newspaper=The New York Times|accessdate=2013-01-01|date=December 14, 2012}}</ref>
| alma_mater = [[Mills College]]
| years_active = 1943–2012
| organization = {{Unbulleted list
| [[Japan Society (New York)|Japan Society]]
| [[Asia Society]]
}}
| awards =
* [[American Dance Guild]] Award (1978)
* Dance on Camera Festival Awards (1984, 1985)
* [[Obie Award]] (1985)
* [[Bessie Awards|Bessie Award]] (1990)
* Honorary [[Doctor of Fine Arts]]<BR>Mills College (1991)
* President's Medal<BR>[[City College of New York|CCNY]] (1992)
* Avon Grand Award to Women's Award (1997)
* John D. Rockefeller Award<BR>[[Asian Cultural Council]] (1997)
* [[Order of the Sacred Treasure]]<BR>Gold Rays with Rosette (1998)
* Ryoko Akamatsu Award (2005)
* Honorary [[Doctor of Law]]<BR>Smith College (2008)
* Honorary [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]]<BR>Mills College (2011)
}}
'''Beate Sirota Gordon''' ({{IPAc-en|b|eɪ|'|ɑː|t|eɪ}}; October 25, 1923&nbsp;– December 30, 2012) was an Austrian and American performing arts presenter and women's rights advocate. Born in Vienna, Austria, she moved to the [[Empire of Japan]] in 1929 with her father, the pianist [[Leo Sirota]]. After graduating from the [[American School in Japan]], she moved to [[Oakland, California]], where she enrolled at [[Mills College]]. Being one of the few people not of Japanese descent who was fluent in Japanese, she obtained work [[United States Office of War Information|Office of War Information]] in the [[Foreign Broadcast Information Service]] of the [[Federal Communications Commission]].

Sirota Gordon returned to Japan after the end of the war, assigned as translator to [[Douglas MacArthur]], [[Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers]]. She later was recruited to be one of the writers of [[Constitution of Japan|Japan's postwar constitution]], where she played an integral role in its mandating of equality between the sexes.

Following Sirota Gordon's return to the United States in 1948, she married and eventually became the performing arts director of the [[Japan Society (New York)|Japan Society]] and the [[Asia Society]]. In this role, she fomented interest in Japanese art and artists in the United States. She retired in 1991.

==Early life and education==
Born in [[Vienna]] on October 25, 1923 and educated in [[Tokyo]], Beate Sirota was the only child of pianist [[Leo Sirota|Leo]] and Augustine Sirota (''née'' Horenstein), Russians of Jewish descent.{{sfn|Gordon|1997|pp=14, 16}} Leo had emigrated from Russia because of [[Pogroms in the Russian Empire#1903–1906|anti-Semitic violence]] and settled in Austria-Hungary. Her maternal uncle was conductor [[Jascha Horenstein]].<ref>[http://www.naxos.com/person/Leo_Sirota/43944.htm "Leo Sirota"] on the [[Naxos Records]] website</ref> Sirota's family emigrated to Japan in 1929, when Leo Sirota accepted an invitation to become a professor at the Imperial Academy of Music&nbsp;– now [[Tokyo University of the Arts]]&nbsp;– in Tokyo.<ref name="one">Dower, pp. 365-367</ref> She attended the German School in Tokyo for six years, until the age of twelve, when she transferred to [[American School in Japan]] (also in Tokyo) as a result of her parents deeming the German School "too Nazi".<ref name="Forward">{{cite web|last=Mostel|first=Raphael|title=Beate Sirota Gordon Dies at 89|url=http://forward.com/articles/168592/beate-sirota-gordon-dies-at-/|publisher=[[The Forward]]|accessdate=2013-01-01|date=January 1, 2013}}</ref><ref name="one"/> Beate Sirota lived in Tokyo a total of ten years before she moved to [[Oakland, California]], in 1939 to attend [[Mills College]], where she was inducted into [[Phi Beta Kappa]] society, and graduated in 1943 with a [[bachelor's degree]] in modern languages. She became a [[Citizenship in the United States#Naturalized citizenship|naturalized U.S. citizen]] in January 1945.<ref name="NYT 20130101" />

==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>

==Performing arts==
After returning to the United States with her parents,<ref name="Forward" /> in 1948,<ref name="NYT 20130101" /> Beate Sirota married Lieutenant Joseph Gordon, who had been chief of the interpreter–translator team for the military intelligence section at the [[Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers|Allied Supreme Commander GHQ]] and was also present for the negotiations on the constitution. Settling in New York in 1947, she took a number of jobs, including one at [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]]. Gordon eventually returned to her primary interest, the [[performing arts]]. She had studied [[ballet]], [[modern dance|modern]], [[folk dance|ethnic, and folk dance]], as well as piano and drama in Tokyo and at Mills. While raising her two young children, she joined the reactivated Japan Society in New York City in 1954 as Director of Student Programs, providing career and job counseling to Japanese students in New York. One of the students was [[Yoko Ono]], with whom she maintained a lifelong friendship. She also worked with visual artists, arranging exhibits and lecture-demonstrations, including the first American visit of the renowned woodblock artist, [[Shikō Munakata]]. In 1958 she was appointed the Society's Director of Performing Arts. In this capacity she introduced a number of Japanese performing artists to the New York public, helping to develop many careers. Among these artists were [[Toshi Ichiyanagi]], now one of Japan's foremost composers and [[Suzushi Hanayagi]], whom she introduced to the theater director [[Robert Wilson (director)|Robert Wilson]], with whom Hanayagi collaborated on the ''Knee Plays'', and other works. In addition, in 1960, Gordon became a consultant to the [[Asia Society]] performing arts program, expanding her activities from Japan to the other countries of Asia.

Gordon was also a consultant and adviser to producers such as [[Harold Prince]] for his production of the [[Stephen Sondheim]] musical, ''[[Pacific Overtures]]''. In the early 1960s, she was influential in bringing [[Koto (instrument)|koto]] music to the attention of Americans by introducing composer [[Henry Cowell]] to the great Japanese koto player, [[Kimio Eto]].  Cowell subsequently wrote a concerto for koto and orchestra for Eto which was presented by [[Leopold Stokowski]] and the [[Philadelphia Orchestra]] in New York, [[Philadelphia]], and on tour. Gordon also produced the first Asian performances at the [[Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts]].

Gordon's travels in search of authentic performing arts from Asia took her to such remote areas as [[Purulia]] in [[West Bengal]], [[India]], and [[Kuching]] in [[Sarawak]], [[Malaysia]], where she sought out indigenous performing artists to bring to universities, museums, and other cultural venues in New York and across the United States and Canada. Over the years, Gordon produced 39 tours by 34 companies from 16 countries. These performances, which were seen by an estimated 1.5 million Americans in some 400 cities and towns in 42 states, brought new ways of experiencing Asian performing arts to audiences throughout the country. They also intensified the post-World War II Asian influence on American art, design, music, literature, and theater.<ref name="Forward" />

For the media, Gordon produced and hosted a series of 12 half-hour programs on the Japanese arts broadcast on New York's [[WNET|Channel 13]] and served as commentator for a series of four hour-long programs featuring traditional and popular music from Japan, China, India, and [[Thailand]] which were broadcast on [[WPXN-TV|Channel 31]], New York City's municipal television station. She also produced 29 video tapes and five films televised nationally. For the [[Nonesuch Records]] Explorer Series, she produced eight albums of Asian music. Gordon served on the panel of, and was subsequently a consultant for, the Dance Program of the [[National Endowment for the Arts]]. She was also the Associate Editor in charge of the Asian Dance section of the ''International Encyclopedia of Dance'' published by [[Oxford University Press]] in February, 1998.

==Honors, retirement and legacy==
For her work as an arts presenter, and for associated activities such as production of video tapes, records, and scholarly monographs on various Asian art forms, Gordon received numerous awards, among them the [[American Dance Guild]] Award (1978), two Dance on Camera Festival Awards (1984, 1985), an [[Obie Award]] for the introduction of [[Samul Nori]] to the United States (1985); a [[Bessie Awards|Bessie Award]] (1990) which cited her "for beating an ever-widening path between the cultures of East and West and for understanding the essential creative dialectic between tradition and experimentation and the fundamental partnership of artists involved in both"; the 2005 Ryoko Akamatsu Award, the Avon Grand Award to Women's Award (1997), and the John D. Rockefeller Award from the [[Asian Cultural Council]] (1997) which gave "recognition of your extraordinary contributions in introducing American scholars, artists, and general audiences to the performing arts of Asia and in increasing the American understanding and appreciation of Asian dance, theater, and music traditions."

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Gordon retired from the directorship at the Asia Society in 1991, continuing as Senior Consultant for Performing Arts until July 1993. She received an Honorary [[Doctor of Fine Arts]] degree from Mills College in 1991, and the President's Medal from the [[City College of New York|College of the City of New York]] in 1992. In November 1998 she received the [[Order of the Sacred Treasure]], Gold Rays with Rosette, from the Japanese government. She also received an honorary [[Doctor of Law]] degree from [[Smith College]] in 2008, and was awarded an honorary [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]] from Mills College in 2011, where a collection of her papers now resides.<ref name="Forward" />

The Japanese television network, [[Asahi Broadcasting Corporation]] (ABC), produced a 90-minute documentary on Gordon's life, first broadcast in Japan on May 22, 1993. A Japanese-language biography, ''Christmas 1945: The Biography of the Woman Who Wrote the Equal Rights Clause of the Japanese Constitution'', was published on October 20, 1995. The English version of this book was published in March 1998 under the title ''The Only Woman in the Room: A Memoir''. A play based on Gordon's role in writing the Japanese constitution, ''A String of Pearls'' by James Miki, was performed by the Seinen Gekijo in Tokyo, in April 1998. Gordon also lectured extensively in the United States and in Japan on her role in writing the Japanese constitution.

The film ''The Sirota Family and the 20th Century'', produced by Tomoko Fujiwara, made its debut in the West in [[Paris]] in April 2009. It is the story of Gordon's father's family and their flight from Europe into the [[diaspora]].

Minor planet [[5559 Beategordon]] discovered by [[Eleanor Helin]] is named in her honor. The official naming citation was published by the [[Minor Planet Center]] on 8 November 2019 ({{small|[[Minor Planet Circulars|M.P.C.]] 117229}}).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/ECS/MPCArchive/2019/MPC_20191108.pdf | title=MINOR PLANET CIRCULARS/MINOR PLANETS AND COMETS, M.P.C 117229 |date=November 8, 2019}}</ref>

[[Jeff Gottesfeld]] published a 2020 book for children, celebrating Gordon's activism and documenting the historical struggle for equal rights.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020|title=No Steps Behind: Beate Sirota Gordon's Battle for Women's Rights in Japan {{!}} Jewish Book Council|url=https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/no-steps-behind-beate-sirota-gordons-battle-for-womens-rights-in-japan|access-date=2021-01-10|website=www.jewishbookcouncil.org|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Children's Book Review: No Steps Behind: Beate Sirota Gordon's Battle for Women's Rights in Japan by Jeff Gottesfeld, illus. by Shiella Witanto. Creston, $18.99 (44p) ISBN 978-1-939547-55-2|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-939547-55-2|access-date=2021-01-10|website=PublishersWeekly.com|date=March 2020 |language=en}}</ref>

==Death==
Gordon died of [[pancreatic cancer]] at her home in [[Manhattan]], [[New York City]] on December 30, 2012, at the age of 89. Her last public statement was to urge that the peace and women's rights clauses of the Japanese Constitution be preserved.<ref name=Mainichi>{{cite news|title=Beate Gordon, a drafter of Japan's Constitution, dies at 89 |url=http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130101p2g00m0in045000c.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130218182511/http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130101p2g00m0in045000c.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2013-02-18 |accessdate=1 January 2013 |newspaper=The Mainichi |date=January 1, 2013 |location=Mainichi Japan }}</ref> Her husband, Joseph Gordon, had died four months earlier, on August 29, 2012, at the age of 93.<ref name="JG Obit">[http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?pid=159548300#fbLoggedOut "Obituary: Joseph Gordon"] ''[[The New York Times]]'' (August 31, 2012)</ref>

==Selected works==
In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Gordon, [[OCLC]]/[[WorldCat]] encompasses roughly 150+ works in 150+ publications in 4 languages and 1,000+ library holdings.<ref>[http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/identities/default.htm  WorldCat Identities] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101230150412/http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/identities/default.htm |date=December 30, 2010 }}: [http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n88-621179 Gordon, Beate]</ref>

* ''Introduction to Asian Dance'' (1964)
* ''An Introduction to the Dance of India, China, Korea [and] Japan'' (1965)
* 1945年のクリスマス: 日本国憲法に「男女平等」を書いた女性の自伝  (1995)
* ''The Only Woman in the Room: A Memoir'' (1997)

'''Oral histories'''
* ''The Reminiscences of Faubion Bowers'' by [[Faubion Bowers]] (1960), with Beate Gordon
* ''The reminiscences of Cyrus H. Peake'' by Cyrus Peake (1961), with Beate Gordon
* ''The Reminiscences of Esther Crane'' by Esther Crane (1961), with Beate Gordon
* ''Occupation of Japan Project'' by [[Eugene Dooman]] (1970), with Beate Gordon
* ''The Japanese Reminiscences of Roger Baldwin'' by [[Roger Nash Baldwin]] (1974), with Beate Gordon
* ''The Reminiscences of Burton Crane'' by [[Burton Crane]] (1974), with Beate Gordon
* ''The Reminiscences of Douglas W. Overton'' by Douglas Overton (1974), with Beate Gordon
* ''The Reminiscences of Joseph Gordon'' by Joseph Gordon (1974), with Beate Gordon
* ''The Reminiscences of Harold G. Henderson'' by [[Harold Gould Henderson]] (1976), with Beate Gordon
* ''The Reminiscences of Dr. Lauren V. Ackerman'' by [[Lauren Ackerman]] (1976), with Beate Gordon
* ''The Reminiscences of John R. Harold'' by John R. Harold (1976), with Beate Gordon

==References==
'''Notes'''
{{reflist}}

'''Bibliography'''
* Bendersky, Joseph W. (2000). ''The Jewish Threat: Anti-Semitic Politics of the U.S. Army''. New York: Basic Books. {{ISBN|9780465006182}}; {{ISBN|9780465006175}}; [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/44089138  OCLC 44089138]
* [[John W. Dower|Dower, John W.]] (1999). ''Embracing Defeat.'' New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999. {{ISBN|9780393046861}}; {{ISBN|9780393320275}}; [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/39143090  OCLC 39143090]
* Gordon, Beate Sirota. (1995). ''1945 Nen no Kurisumasu'' 1945年のクリスマス』). Tokyo: Kashiwashobo. {{ISBN|9784760110773}}; [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/036090237  OCLC 36090237]
* {{cite book |last1=Gordon |first1=Beate Sirota |title=The Only Woman in the Room: a Memoir |date=1997 |publisher=Kodansha |location=Tokyo |isbn=9784770021458 |oclc=38588852}}
* Azimi, Nassrine and Wasserman, Michel. (2015). ''Last Boat to Yokohama: The Life and Legacy of Beate Sirota Gordon''. New York: Three Rooms Press. {{ISBN|9781941110188}}; [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/890068430  OCLC 890068430]

== External links ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051109044855/http://www.tuj.ac.jp/newsite/main/law/lawresources/TUJonline/ConstitutionandGov/beateandJapaneseConst.html Biography] by Kuniko Fujisawa, Temple University Japan
* {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719234041/http://www.asij.ac.jp/japan/asij_authors/e_g/gordon_b_bib.htm |date=July 19, 2011 |title=Biography }} by Lindi Geisenheimer, American School in Japan
*{{cite web|url=http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/whm2001/gordon.html |title=Beate Sirota Gordon (1924 - ) |accessdate=2009-03-06 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090905195740/http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/whm2001/gordon.html |archivedate=2009-09-05 }}  (Sunshine for Women)
*[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cszmv7 9-minute podcast from BBC World Service Witness History “The American who put women's rights in the Japanese constitution”] Broadcast on Fri 7 Aug 2020 22:50 local time BBC WORLD SERVICE; also downloadable from:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/witness-history/id339986758?i=1000488665375

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Beate Sirota}}
[[Category:1923 births]]
[[Category:2012 deaths]]
[[Category:Japanese Jews]]
[[Category:Mills College alumni]]
[[Category:American expatriates in Japan]]
[[Category:Austrian emigrants to Japan]]
[[Category:Austrian Jews]]
[[Category:Austrian people of Russian-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Austrian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:People from Währing]]
[[Category:Deaths from pancreatic cancer in New York (state)]]
[[Category:American School in Japan alumni]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of the Sacred Treasure, 4th class]]
[[Category:Japanese women activists]]
[[Category:Japanese women's rights activists]]
[[Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States]]
[[Category:People of the United States Office of War Information]]