A major breakthrough was made late last month in the issue of wartime comfort women, which still causes conflict between Japan and South Korea. The academic paper by Mark Ramseyer, 69, a professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Law, which debunked the “comfort women = sex slaves” theory that is spreading around the world, was recognized as the truth after a rigorous review process. More than two years have passed since the publication of the paper. In the meantime, protests have erupted in South Korea and the United States, highlighting a variety of issues and challenges. Let us clarify them one by one.
In December 2020, the professor published an academic paper in the U.S. academic journal International Review of Law and Economics (IRLE), which stated that comfort women were prostitutes under contract. After the abstract of the paper was published in this newspaper in January 2009, the professor contributed an article to the English-language news and opinion website JAPAN Forward (JF), claiming that the “comfort women = sex slaves” theory was a complete fabrication.
A violent protest by South Korean and U.S. scholars began shortly thereafter. According to the professor, on many days he received dozens of threatening letters, death threats, and other harassing e-mails. In addition, university professors in the U.S. and Singapore simultaneously launched a campaign on Twitter and other media demanding that the paper be retracted and that Professor Ramseyer be fired.
Among them were a number of tweets that, despite the fact that he is a university professor, verbally abused Professor Ramseyer, calling him a “white supremacist” and a “repeat hate speaker,” without providing any evidence. However, when their defeat was confirmed, some professors tried to destroy the evidence by deleting these problematic tweets and closing their own Twitter accounts. ［Comfort Women Professor Mark Ramseyer Speaks Out as Truth Wins
Professor Ramseyer, on the other hand, did not yield to these “gangster” threats, manipulation of impressions, and distortion of facts, and was able to make new discoveries through further research. In collaboration with Professor Tetsuo Arima of Waseda University, he investigated the origins of the comfort women issue and discovered that North Korean connections were deeply involved in the issue. They jointly published their findings in a paper titled “The Comfort Women Issue and North Korean Connections.”
Professor Ramseyer said, “These two years have been really exhausting. But thanks to those who attacked me and Professor Arima, I am glad that the true history of the comfort women issue and the fact that the shadow of North Korea lurks deeply behind the issue is widely known throughout the world,” said JF editor and Associate Professor Jason Morgan of Reitaku University’s School of International Studies in an interview.
The above article is the final headline of a three-part series based on that interview, and a Japanese summary of the three English articles, “Harvard Professor Ramseyer’s ‘Comfort Women’ Thesis Survives,” is also available on the JF Japanese page.
In it, Associate Professor Morgan states, “Professor Ramseyer’s stunning victory will be a major turning point in the historical battle that is the comfort women issue. Indeed, despite the victory, comfort women statues continue to be erected in Berlin and around the world by those who still believe the falsehood that “comfort women = sex slaves.
Will the comfort women controversy in the U.S. academic community continue to head toward a resolution, or will the behavior of those who have been imprinted with “false history” change in the future? It remains to be seen. From now on, the Japanese people are called upon more than ever to make efforts to convey this victory to the rest of the world.
However, there is no doubt that the historical battle has entered a new phase, and JF will continue to actively communicate historical issues other than the comfort women issue. (JAPAN Forward Editorial Department)
