A professor of sociology at Hanshin University in South Korea has been causing controversy after making insulting comments about former Japanese military comfort women during a lecture, and also making ‘distorted claims’ in relation to the Jeju April Third Incident and the Gwangju Uprising (May 1980).
According to students at the university, the professor made comments in his “Social Research Methods 1” class on the 12th of last month that denied the forced mobilization of comfort women.
In a wall newspaper posted on campus, the students wrote that the professor said, “In fact, there is not much evidence that comfort women were forcibly conscripted. ‘Sold’ means that their fathers or uncles sold them off.” ‘They became comfort women because it was hard to make a living, and there are even records that they received payment in advance, so what is this about forced comfort women?’ ”We should be condemning the fathers and uncles who sold them off at the time.”
The professor is also reported to have said, “The Japanese have apologized 35 times, but they say they haven’t apologized. Regarding the colonial period, the prime minister has always apologized, and even the emperor has apologized.”
In a class on the 2nd of this month, the professor is also reported to have said, ‘The Jeju April 3rd Incident was a communist uprising’ and ”outside forces intervened in the Gwangju Incident.”
The professor is reported to have explained that the controversial comments were made in order to introduce a non-mainstream viewpoint.
However, the students are demanding that the professor apologize and that the school take disciplinary action, saying that they cannot help but sigh at the fact that the professor has a mistaken understanding of history and is brazenly telling students about it in his lectures.
KOREA WAVE/AFPBB News
