Beate Sirota Gordon was born in 1923 in Vienna and moved to Japan with her parents as a child. After going to college in the United States, she joined the Occupation forces as a researcher, and in December 1945 she took up a job in the political affairs division of the Occupation's General Headquarters in Tokyo.
Shortly afterward, Gordon played a crucial role in writing the Constitution, herself contributing the clauses on academic freedom and on women's rights. Her original draft for women's rights included many social welfare rights modeled on constitutions she had studied from Scandinavia, the Soviet Union and the Weimar Republic. Many of these rights were deleted by GHQ before the draft was presented to the Japanese government. However, the fundamental rights of women -- to own and inherit property, to have free choice in marriage, to have equal rights in the family and to vote -- were retained.
The early years of the Occupation seem to have been very idealistic. Is that how you experienced it?