Japanese Historians Support Harvard Professor Who Described Comfort Women Victims as 'Prostitutes'

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Japanese scholars have come to the support of Harvard Law School professor Mark Ramseyer, whose paper labeled comfort women victims as "prostitutes," sparking controversy.

According to a "public letter supporting Professor Ramseyer" posted on March 10 on Twitter by Ezaki Michio, Vice Chairman of the Japanese Historical Awareness Research Association, six historians in Japan, including Ezaki, expressed their support for the paper to the editorial board of the International Review of Law and Economics, which planned to publish the controversial paper.

The public letter was signed by six individuals: five Japanese scholars and Jason Morgan, an associate professor at Reitaku University in Japan.

They stated, "Professor Ramseyer's paper has become the new target of American-style 'cancel culture,'" and described the paper as "an outstanding scholarly work based on remarkably extensive primary sources."

They added, "It is a great achievement worthy of praise and should not be subject to censorship."

They urged, "Instead of canceling the work of a talented and conscientious scholar, colleagues should be allowed to access Professor Ramseyer's academic results," pressuring for the paper to be published as scheduled in the March issue.

In the letter, they also argued that the 2015 Korea-Japan comfort women agreement supports the content of Ramseyer's paper.

However, criticism against Professor Ramseyer is intensifying.

Joseph Choi, a Harvard Law School student, and Mindy Nam, an alumnus, wrote an article titled "Ramseyer's Role in Japan's Silence on Comfort Women" for the campus newspaper The Crimson, criticizing, "Ramseyer's paper publication is not an isolated incident but part of a continuous and widespread effort to rewrite history and silence victims of sexual slavery."

They noted that this effort intensified under former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government and highlighted that Ramseyer's paper was released shortly after a Korean court ruling ordering compensation for comfort women victims.

The authors expressed concern, saying, "As a law professor at one of the world's most prestigious universities, Ramseyer lends tremendous credibility to these efforts to whitewash history," and added, "Failing to acknowledge and respect the victims is tantamount to erasing their voices."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.