After the end of World War II, Japanese people were in need. With the basic necessities of food, clothing and housing in short supply, and daily amenities almost unobtainable, the people suffered. Some concerned non-Japanese women living in Tokyo came together to provide help. They resurrected a prewar organization, launching from it the International Ladies Benevolent Society.

Japan was well on the way to economic recovery when ILBS sponsored its first ball for charity. Fifty-one years later, Japan has become a prosperous nation with little seeming need for continuing charitable aid.

Angela B. Infante said: "You don't see the need as you do in some countries, but when you belong to ILBS you realize that here in Japan are other types of need. Handicapped people are here, the same as everywhere. There is need in taking care of them, and of old people on their own, and of long-term patients in hospital."

Aware of the gaps in society, Infante, wife of the ambassador of Chile to Japan, accepted this year the presidency of ILBS and the chair of the Cherry Blossom Charity Ball.

Infante was born in Valparaiso, Chile, the third generation of a family originally from Spain. Spanish is her first language, and she feels very close to her Spanish heritage. She is a graduate of the Covent of the Sacred Heart in Santiago.

After she married Demetrio, a career diplomat, and had their first two sons, Infante went to university. She obtained her degree in family counseling. A mature young person by that time, and able to deal with mature situations in life, she worked with families having marital strife or problems with difficult children. Eventually Infante had two younger sons as well. Now she has four grandsons in addition, and a small granddaughter who has been named after her.

She knows her country well. She has traveled over almost all of its long, narrow extent, which stretches between ocean and mountains from northern deserts to southern glaciers. She has been twice to Easter Island, known throughout the world for the mystery of its giant statues. "The island is very magical. You feel you are in another world," Infante said. In a first diplomatic posting, she accompanied her husband to Peru. At Machu Picchu, the "lost city of the Incas," she felt again that touch of magic in the ancient, the distant, the hard to explain.

Infante has been twice with her husband to Washington, and once to New York, to South Africa and in his first ambassadorial posting to New Zealand. "Everywhere I have been involved in charity work," she said.

Infante has been in Japan for more than four years now. When she was asked to assume the presidency of ILBS, she had no hesitation in accepting. When she was asked to be concurrently chairwoman of the 51st Cherry Blossom Charity Ball, she accepted at once. She felt she could handle both major positions together largely because she knew how steadfast and capable were the Japanese ladies of ILBS. "They do a fantastic job. Really they are perfectionists," she said.

Many international ladies, like Infante, are drawn to ILBS by its guarded use of all the money it receives. No money raised for welfare is used for organizational expenses, which are taken care of by membership dues. Every ILBS worker is a volunteer, and ILBS has no office nor paid staff. ILBS raises its money through its activities and from donations made by companies and individuals. It gives financial support to Japanese institutions it inspects and encourages, to some overseas institutions, and some deserving non-Japanese nationals here. It is honored by the patronage of the Imperial family.

This year's ball is scheduled for April 16, and 600 guests are expected. Infante makes a distinctive mark on the gala event in the provision of Chilean wine to accompany the banquet prepared by The Hotel Okura.

She is proud of the door prizes that will be won by ball goers. These include a Volvo lease, United Airlines business-class tickets for two to the USA, and other covetable trophies bearing renowned names such as Kazuo Ogawa and Giorgio Armani. Raffle prizes may be won by well-wishers who are not at the ball. Heading the raffle prizes are Alitalia and Park Hyatt business-class tickets and stays in Milan, and gifts from Chaumet Paris, Baccarat and an LCD TV.