After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Imperial Japan’s declaration of surrender on Aug. 15, 1945, brought an end to World War II. It also marked the beginning of the rebirth of Japan as a democratic country.
In December 1945, the country’s General Election Law was amended to include women's suffrage, and the 1947 Constitution of Japan enshrined, among other democratic reforms, equal rights for men and women.
Ethel B. Weed, a lieutenant working for U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArhur at the Allied Occupation headquarters in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward, had been tasked with furthering the interests of women’s rights in Japan. To this end, Weed put together a brain trust of Japanese women with liberal ideals. Most of them had been in jail during the war because of their progressive ideologies, and Weed's assistant, Nobuko Takahashi, later became the first Japanese female ambassador to Denmark.