CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (AP) – A professor at Harvard University has caused international uproar and is increasingly scrutinized for alleging that Korean women held as sex slaves during wartime actually chose to work as prostitutes.
In a recent academic paper, J. Mark Ramseyer rejected a large number of studies showing that Japan’s so-called ‘comfort women’ were forced to work in military brothels during World War II. Ramseyer instead argued that the women voluntarily entered into contracts as sex workers.
His paper has sparked political controversy between Japan, whose leaders deny the women were coerced, and South Korea, which has long pressured Japan to apologize and compensate women who have shared stories of rape and abuse.
Decades of research have investigated the wrongs inflicted on comfort women from Korea and other countries previously occupied by Japan. In the 1990s, women began sharing stories of how they were taken to comfort stations and forced to provide sexual services to the Japanese military.
Hundreds of scholars have signed letters condemning Ramseyer’s article, which united North and South Korea in outrage. Last Tuesday, the North Korean state of DPRK Today published an article calling Ramseyer a “disgusting money grubber” and a “pseudo-scholar.”
Ramseyer, a professor of Japanese legal studies at Harvard Law School, declined to comment.
Ramseyer’s article, entitled “Contracts for Sex in the Pacific War,” was published online in December and was scheduled to appear in the March issue of the International Review of Law and Economics. However, the matter has been shelved and the magazine has issued a “Expression of Concern” stating that the piece is under investigation.
Most alarming to historians is what they say is a lack of evidence in the paper: Scholars at Harvard and other institutions have searched Ramseyer’s sources and say there is no historical evidence of the contracts he describes.
In a statement calling for the article to be withdrawn, Harvard historians Andrew Gordon and Carter Eckert said Ramseyer has “not consulted any actual contract” about comfort women.
“We don’t see how Ramseyer can make credible claims, in extremely emphatic terms, about contracts he hasn’t read,” they wrote.
Alexis Dudden, a historian of modern Japan and Korea at the University of Connecticut, called the article a “total fabrication” that goes beyond decades of research. While some have invoked academic freedom to defend Ramseyer, Dudden objects that the article “does not meet the requirements of academic integrity.”
“These are allegations out of the blue,” she said. “It is very clear from his writing and his sources that he has never seen a contract.”
More than 1,000 economists have signed a separate letter condemning the article, saying it is misusing economic theory “as a cover to legitimize heinous atrocities.” A separate group of Japanese historians published a 30-page article explaining why the article should be withdrawn “for academic misconduct.”
At Harvard, hundreds of students signed a petition demanding an apology from Ramseyer and a response from the university to the complaints against him. Harvard Law School declined to comment.
A 1996 United Nations report concluded that the comfort women were sex slaves taken by “force and outright coercion.” A 1993 statement by Japan acknowledged that women were taken “against their own will,” although the nation’s leaders later denied it.
Tensions flared up again in January when a South Korean court ruled that the Japanese government should give 100 million won ($ 90,000) to each of the 12 women who filed a lawsuit in 2013 for their wartime suffering. Japan maintains that all wartime compensation issues were resolved under a 1965 treaty to normalize relations with South Korea.
In South Korea, activists have denounced Ramseyer and called for his resignation from Harvard. Chung Young-ai, South Korean minister of gender equality and family, expressed dismay at the article last week.
“There is an attempt to distort (the facts about) the issue of the Japanese military’s ‘comfort women’ and tarnish the honor and dignity of the victims,” Chung said, according to comments from her ministry.
Lee Yong-soo, a 92-year-old South Korean survivor, described Ramseyer’s claim as “ridiculous” and demanded an apology.
Lee, an influential activist, campaigns for South Korea and Japan to break their decades-long deadlock by seeking judgment of the International Court of Justice.
When Lee was asked about Ramseyer last Wednesday, he said, “That professor should also be dragged to (the ICJ).”
The controversy, heightened by the source at an Ivy League university, has prompted new research into Ramseyer’s other work.
In response to emerging concerns from scientists, The European Journal of Law and Economics added an editor’s note stating that it examines a recent piece by Ramseyer – this paper studies Koreans who lived in Japan in the early 20th century. Cambridge University Press said a forthcoming Ramseyer chapter of the book “will be reviewed by the author after consultation between the author and the editors of the book.”
Ramseyer echoed his claims about comfort women in a submission to a Japanese news site in January. In it, he alleged that the women had entered into agreements similar to those used under a separate licensed prostitution system in Japan. He dismissed reports of forced labor as “pure fiction”, saying the Japanese military “did not drag Korean women to their brothels.”
“It is fine to express my condolences to older women who have lived hard lives,” he wrote. “Paying money to an ally to rebuild a stable relationship is fine. But the claims about enslaved Korean comfort women are historically untrue. “
Opponents argue that many of the women were so young that they would not have been able to consent to sex, even if there was evidence of contracts.
“We’re actually talking about 15-year-olds,” said Dudden of the University of Connecticut. “This article further victimizes the few survivors by making claims that even the author knows cannot be substantiated.”
Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim and Kim Tong-hyung contributed from Seoul.