Harvard Professor Who Labeled Comfort Women as 'Prostitutes' Also Justified the Kanto Korean Massacre

Mark Ramseyer, Harvard Law School Professor
Justified Massacre of Joseon People in 2019 Paper
"It Is True Joseon People Died in the Great Earthquake, but Because of Their High Crime Rate"

▲Mark Ramseyer, Professor at Harvard Law School

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] It has been revealed that Mark Ramseyer, a Harvard Law School professor who wrote a paper labeling comfort women victims as 'prostitutes,' expressed the opinion that the massacre of Koreans during the Great Kanto Earthquake was justified.

According to Ramseyer's paper published in June 2019, titled "Vigilantes: Japanese Police, the Massacre of Koreans, and Private Security Firms," it was confirmed that the use of private police forces in abnormal situations was considered justifiable.

Professor Ramseyer acknowledged that Japanese vigilantes did kill Korean residents in Japan following the earthquake that caused 100,000 deaths, but emphasized, "The important issue is not whether the massacre occurred, but how extensively Koreans committed crimes and how many Koreans were actually killed by the vigilantes."

He argued that Koreans became targets of the vigilantes because they committed crimes at the time, and that the number of deaths was exaggerated.

Furthermore, he depicted the Korean residents in Japan at the time as a criminal group.

He cited statistics showing that among 100,000 Japanese men in 1920, 191 committed crimes, whereas among 100,000 Korean men in Japan, 542 committed crimes.

He also mentioned that after the March 1st Movement in 1919, Korean resistance against Japan intensified, citing assassination incidents involving independence activists as examples.

In particular, he referred to Park Yeol, who was fabricated as the mastermind behind an assassination attempt on the Emperor, stating, "Although some historians dispute this, it was a clear assassination attempt," thereby reflecting the perspective of Japanese right-wing groups.

He also treated as a given fact that the fires in the Kanto region following the earthquake were the work of Korean leftist forces.

The source Ramseyer cited was a report from the Governor-General of Korea stating, "It is not an unfounded rumor that Koreans set fires and poisoned wells after the earthquake."

Additionally, Ramseyer claimed that the number of Koreans who lost their lives at the hands of Japanese vigilantes was also exaggerated.

He introduced the fact that a Japanese professor immediately after the earthquake estimated the number of Korean deaths at around 2,000, but the figures increased to between 3,000 and 6,000, eventually reaching 20,000, arguing that the counts were arbitrary.

He expressed agreement with the Governor-General of Korea's data indicating that the number of Koreans killed by vigilantes was around 300.

Professor Lee Jin-hee of the Department of History at Eastern Illinois University criticized, "Ramseyer completely denies the involvement and leadership of the Japanese government and disseminates the mass massacre of Koreans by Japanese as self-defense."

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