Toneko Kimura Hirai

After World War II, Toneko Kimura Hirai joined the Moral Re-Armament (MRA) movement, an organization of Christian peace activists. Working as an interpreter, she traveled extensively with the MRA and pursued a 20-year career as an interpreter for numerous other international organizations and conferences. Following a brief marriage, Hirai returned to Japan at age 48 to get a bachelor's degree at Sophia University. She later moved to Hawaii and enrolled in a PhD program in political science,...See more

After World War II, Toneko Kimura Hirai joined the Moral Re-Armament (MRA) movement, an organization of Christian peace activists. Working as an interpreter, she traveled extensively with the MRA and pursued a 20-year career as an interpreter for numerous other international organizations and conferences. Following a brief marriage, Hirai returned to Japan at age 48 to get a bachelor's degree at Sophia University. She later moved to Hawaii and enrolled in a PhD program in political science, earning her doctorate at age 66. Now in her early 80s and suffering residual effects of a stroke, Hirai resides in a continuing care facility in Zushi, about 30 miles south of Tokyo near Hayama. See less