Harvard University: "'Comfort women as prostitutes' paper is academic freedom"... VANK: "Japan unaware of slave crimes"

Park Gitae, VANK Director: "Japanese Imperialism Must Be Known in American Society as Much as the Nazis"
"Hiding Within Academic Freedom and Not Fulfilling Scholars' Conscience and Duty"

The cyber diplomacy group VANK sent a protest email to Harvard Law School professor Mark Ramseyer, who is planning to publish a paper containing claims that "comfort women were prostitutes." / Photo by VANK

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Ju-hyung] The cyber diplomatic mission group 'VANK' announced that it has sent an additional protest email regarding Harvard University professor John Mark Ramseyer, who sparked controversy by publishing a paper that defined the victims of the Japanese military sexual slavery as prostitutes. VANK plans to send related materials to Harvard faculty and local Korean students as well.

On the 18th, Park Ki-tae, head of VANK, appeared on MBC Radio's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' and targeted Professor Ramseyer, saying, "He hid behind academic freedom but did not fulfill the conscience and duty of a scholar," emphasizing, "I feel a mission to make the atrocities of Japanese imperialism and historical distortion as well known in American society as Nazi war crimes."

Earlier, on the 16th, VANK sent a protest email to Harvard University demanding the withdrawal of Professor Ramseyer's paper. In response, Harvard University President Lawrence Bacow reportedly replied, "The expression of controversial views by Professor Ramseyer within the university is included in academic freedom," and "Professor Ramseyer's claims are stated as his personal opinions."

Regarding this, Director Park pointed out, "Generally, academic freedom means freely presenting research results under any oppression or persecution," and said the response from Harvard shows that the West is still ignorant about Japanese imperialist sexual ethics and slave crimes."

He continued, "No one would say that the Nazis contributed to world peace or that the black slave system contributed to the development of the United States," and explained, "I wonder if the president spoke on behalf of all professors, so we plan to send Harvard President's response along with this content to all Harvard faculty and even Korean students who can visit Harvard."

International Petition by the Korean American Association of the Northeastern United States Urging the Retraction of a Harvard Professor's 'Comfort Women' Paper / Photo by Yonhap News

Meanwhile, in the United States, voices demanding the withdrawal of Professor Ramseyer's paper are growing, centered on the Korean community.

On the 16th (local time), the Korean American Associations of the Northeastern U.S. posted a petition on the world's largest petition website 'Change.org,' stating, "We strongly condemn Professor Ramseyer's historical distortion paper and urge the immediate withdrawal of the paper and a sincere apology."

The petition was confirmed to have been supported by several Korean organizations from regions including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Delaware. They emphasized in the petition, "The issue of Japanese military sexual slavery is a severe human rights violation against women during the harsh period of war," and "It is an undeniable historical truth."

They also plan to deliver the online signatures to Harvard Law School and the International Review of Law and Economics, the academic journal where Professor Ramseyer's paper will be published.

Meanwhile, Professor Ramseyer is scheduled to publish a paper in March in an academic journal, arguing that the victims of Japanese military sexual slavery were commercial prostitutes rather than forcibly mobilized.

The paper reportedly states that at the time, the Japanese Ministry of Home Affairs required recruiters to employ only women working as prostitutes as comfort women, that the responsible police directly confirmed with the women that they applied voluntarily, and that they were instructed to return home immediately after the contract expired. In other words, the claim is interpreted as stating that comfort women were prostitutes who voluntarily gathered without coercion.

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