Nassrine Azimi has co-founded and now coordinates the Green Legacy Hiroshima (GLH) Initiative, a global campaign to plant seeds and saplings of trees that survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima worldwide. She established the Hiroshima Office for Asia and the Pacific, United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), in 2003. Azimi has written and published extensively on training, UN peacekeeping, post-conflict reconstruction, and environmental governance. Her op-ed pieces have appeared regularly in the international press. She lives in Hiroshima, Japan.

Michel Wasserman is the former director of the Kyoto French Cultural Institute and of a French “artist in residence” program in Kyoto, the Villa Kujoyama. He is currently professor at the College of International Relations, Ritsumeikan ­University. A Paris III doctor in oriental studies, Michel Wasserman has worked and written extensively on Japanese traditional theatre, especially Kabuki, and has also published various books on the reception of western music in Japan. He lives in Kyoto, Japan.

"In 1946, a remarkable woman secretly helped create Japan's new constitution, writing an article that mandated equal rights for all women in Japan. Few could imagine that Article 24 was the work of a 22-year-old Vienna-born, naturalized American woman of Ukrainian-Jewish descent who had gown up in Japan. Her name was Beate Sirota, and to this day she remains an idol for generations of Japanese women. This extraordinary biography includes a foreword by Beate, an in-depth look at her father, the world-renowned classical pianist Leo Sirota, personal diaries from the World War II era by her mother, Augustine, as well as a detailed overview of Beate's life, including the ongoing impact of her contributions to the Japanese constitution, as well as her personal impact on world culture fostered by four decades of dedication to introducing authentic dance, theater, and music of the Far East to American audiences"--Page 4 of cover.