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Harvard professor under fire for ‘negating’ Korean ‘comfort women’ forced to work as sex slaves in Japan army’s WWII brothels
“It is a wrong conclusion based on grounds very biased and lacking trustworthiness,” the statement on the website of the Harvard Korean society said of Professor J. Mark Ramseyer’s paper published in academic journal the International Review of Law and Economics.
“The issue of ‘comfort women’ is an international inhumane act and his academic view, which justifies and negates this act, is an immoral and shameless view.”
The association also pointed out that 66-year-old Ramseyer – who grew up in Japan, has taught at a number of Japanese universities, is fluent in the language and was in 2018 awarded the Order of the Rising Sun for his contributions to the promotion of Japanese society and culture – cited virtually no Korean sources for his research.
Ramseyer argued that the women were not coerced into working in the sex industry but were voluntarily employed under the terms of contracts that were sufficiently “generous” to offset the dangers and likely damage to their reputation that the job entailed.
The women “chose prostitution over those alternative opportunities because they believed prostitution offered them a better outcome,” he wrote.
- J. Mark Ramseyer, 66, grew up in Japan and in 2018 was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun for helping promote Japanese society and culture
- His paper, which cited few Korean sources, claimed the ‘comfort women’ were willingly recruited. A students’ group has demanded an apology
“It is a wrong conclusion based on grounds very biased and lacking trustworthiness,” the statement on the website of the Harvard Korean society said of Professor J. Mark Ramseyer’s paper published in academic journal the International Review of Law and Economics.
“The issue of ‘comfort women’ is an international inhumane act and his academic view, which justifies and negates this act, is an immoral and shameless view.”
The association also pointed out that 66-year-old Ramseyer – who grew up in Japan, has taught at a number of Japanese universities, is fluent in the language and was in 2018 awarded the Order of the Rising Sun for his contributions to the promotion of Japanese society and culture – cited virtually no Korean sources for his research.
Ramseyer argued that the women were not coerced into working in the sex industry but were voluntarily employed under the terms of contracts that were sufficiently “generous” to offset the dangers and likely damage to their reputation that the job entailed.
The women “chose prostitution over those alternative opportunities because they believed prostitution offered them a better outcome,” he wrote.