• About The Blue & Gold
    • The Staff
  • Contact Us
    • Submissions Policy
  • TAS Website
No Result
View All Result
Tuesday, April 13, 2021
The Blue & Gold
25 °c
Taipei City
  • News
    Upper School faculty attend Nonbinary and Transgender Student Workshop

    Upper School faculty attend Nonbinary and Transgender Student Workshop

    New upper school student group encourages valuable discourse on identity and diversity

    New upper school student group encourages valuable discourse on identity and diversity

    New schoolwide faculty committee strives to create a more inclusive TAS community

    New schoolwide faculty committee strives to create a more inclusive TAS community

    Taipei American School Film Club’s Year-Long project

    Taipei American School Film Club’s Year-Long project

    Uncovering Harvard professor’s distorted narrative of Comfort Women

    Uncovering Harvard professor’s distorted narrative of Comfort Women

    Dr. Dodge takes on the role of interim head of school

    Dr. Dodge takes on the role of interim head of school

    Athletes adjusting to constant IASAS changes

    Athletes adjusting to constant IASAS changes

    TAS delegates attend the 2020 IASAS MUN conference online

    TAS delegates attend the 2020 IASAS MUN conference online

    IASAS Film offers new online 48-hour-film competition due to COVID-19

    IASAS Film offers new online 48-hour-film competition due to COVID-19

  • Sports
  • Opinion
    • All
    • Editorial
    • Letters
    • The Gabfest
    Conversations in these isolated times

    Conversations in these isolated times

    Dear TAS boys, be careful with the curls you get

    Dear TAS boys, be careful with the curls you get

    Deeper connotations beyond seemingly casual greetings

    Deeper connotations beyond seemingly casual greetings

    Style Exploitations: Why unsustainable fashion still exists

    Style Exploitations: Why unsustainable fashion still exists

    Let’s stop shopping at SHEIN, the fashion company that sells affordable clothing but is problematic

    Let’s stop shopping at SHEIN, the fashion company that sells affordable clothing but is problematic

    What I wish I knew before applying to college

    What I wish I knew before applying to college

    Why “test optional” policies should continue on post-pandemic

    Why “test optional” policies should continue on post-pandemic

    Passport strength amidst the COVID-19 pandemic shines light on dual citizenship

    Passport strength amidst the COVID-19 pandemic shines light on dual citizenship

    Exclusive library study rooms further toxic academic culture at TAS

    Trending Tags

    • Features
      Hanlin Tang (‘04): Former Blue & Gold Editor-In-Chief is now a principal scientist at Intel Corporation.

      Hanlin Tang (‘04): Former Blue & Gold Editor-In-Chief is now a principal scientist at Intel Corporation.

      Black History Month needs to be talked about more at TAS

      Darryl Loke (‘17) wins Emmy award for his college film, “Strays”

      Darryl Loke (‘17) wins Emmy award for his college film, “Strays”

      College application advice from 2021 Seniors

      College application advice from 2021 Seniors

      Classes more people should know about

      Classes more people should know about

      Lower school students launch gardening initiative

      Lower school students launch gardening initiative

      Juggling in-person and online classes

      Juggling in-person and online classes

      Chinese New Year traveling has been canceled due to the COVID-19 Coronavirus

      Chinese New Year traveling has been canceled due to the COVID-19 Coronavirus

      Annabelle W. (‘22) participates in triathlon relay in Taiwan and places fourth in her division

      Annabelle W. (‘22) participates in triathlon relay in Taiwan and places fourth in her division

      Trending Tags

      • Verdict
        • All
        • Food
        • Movies
        • The B&G Book Corner
        • TV

        niko and… :An underrated Japanese home goods store

        YEN sets an unmatched bar for Cantonese food

        YEN sets an unmatched bar for Cantonese food

        Ideal cafes for studying

        Ideal cafes for studying

        Neighbors Cafe lives up to its name

        Neighbors Cafe lives up to its name

        REVIEW | “Raya and the Last Dragon”

        REVIEW | “Raya and the Last Dragon”

        TikTok’s Three Ingredient Creme Brûlée: Is it Worth it?

        TikTok’s Three Ingredient Creme Brûlée: Is it Worth it?

        A trip to the Cat Cafe

        A trip to the Cat Cafe

        Attemping to make the Korean Minimalistic Cake

        Attemping to make the Korean Minimalistic Cake

        Spend your Sunday afternoons studying at Windows Cafe

        Spend your Sunday afternoons studying at Windows Cafe

        Eco-friendly brands that reduce climate impact

        Eco-friendly brands that reduce climate impact

        Diamonds and Dior lead to deeper conversations in Netflix’s “Bling Empire”

        Diamonds and Dior lead to deeper conversations in Netflix’s “Bling Empire”

        National Taichung Theater: the best architectural phenomenon that showcases musicals

        National Taichung Theater: the best architectural phenomenon that showcases musicals

      • Multimedia
      • News
        Upper School faculty attend Nonbinary and Transgender Student Workshop

        Upper School faculty attend Nonbinary and Transgender Student Workshop

        New upper school student group encourages valuable discourse on identity and diversity

        New upper school student group encourages valuable discourse on identity and diversity

        New schoolwide faculty committee strives to create a more inclusive TAS community

        New schoolwide faculty committee strives to create a more inclusive TAS community

        Taipei American School Film Club’s Year-Long project

        Taipei American School Film Club’s Year-Long project

        Uncovering Harvard professor’s distorted narrative of Comfort Women

        Uncovering Harvard professor’s distorted narrative of Comfort Women

        Dr. Dodge takes on the role of interim head of school

        Dr. Dodge takes on the role of interim head of school

        Athletes adjusting to constant IASAS changes

        Athletes adjusting to constant IASAS changes

        TAS delegates attend the 2020 IASAS MUN conference online

        TAS delegates attend the 2020 IASAS MUN conference online

        IASAS Film offers new online 48-hour-film competition due to COVID-19

        IASAS Film offers new online 48-hour-film competition due to COVID-19

      • Sports
      • Opinion
        • All
        • Editorial
        • Letters
        • The Gabfest
        Conversations in these isolated times

        Conversations in these isolated times

        Dear TAS boys, be careful with the curls you get

        Dear TAS boys, be careful with the curls you get

        Deeper connotations beyond seemingly casual greetings

        Deeper connotations beyond seemingly casual greetings

        Style Exploitations: Why unsustainable fashion still exists

        Style Exploitations: Why unsustainable fashion still exists

        Let’s stop shopping at SHEIN, the fashion company that sells affordable clothing but is problematic

        Let’s stop shopping at SHEIN, the fashion company that sells affordable clothing but is problematic

        What I wish I knew before applying to college

        What I wish I knew before applying to college

        Why “test optional” policies should continue on post-pandemic

        Why “test optional” policies should continue on post-pandemic

        Passport strength amidst the COVID-19 pandemic shines light on dual citizenship

        Passport strength amidst the COVID-19 pandemic shines light on dual citizenship

        Exclusive library study rooms further toxic academic culture at TAS

        Trending Tags

        • Features
          Hanlin Tang (‘04): Former Blue & Gold Editor-In-Chief is now a principal scientist at Intel Corporation.

          Hanlin Tang (‘04): Former Blue & Gold Editor-In-Chief is now a principal scientist at Intel Corporation.

          Black History Month needs to be talked about more at TAS

          Darryl Loke (‘17) wins Emmy award for his college film, “Strays”

          Darryl Loke (‘17) wins Emmy award for his college film, “Strays”

          College application advice from 2021 Seniors

          College application advice from 2021 Seniors

          Classes more people should know about

          Classes more people should know about

          Lower school students launch gardening initiative

          Lower school students launch gardening initiative

          Juggling in-person and online classes

          Juggling in-person and online classes

          Chinese New Year traveling has been canceled due to the COVID-19 Coronavirus

          Chinese New Year traveling has been canceled due to the COVID-19 Coronavirus

          Annabelle W. (‘22) participates in triathlon relay in Taiwan and places fourth in her division

          Annabelle W. (‘22) participates in triathlon relay in Taiwan and places fourth in her division

          Trending Tags

          • Verdict
            • All
            • Food
            • Movies
            • The B&G Book Corner
            • TV

            niko and… :An underrated Japanese home goods store

            YEN sets an unmatched bar for Cantonese food

            YEN sets an unmatched bar for Cantonese food

            Ideal cafes for studying

            Ideal cafes for studying

            Neighbors Cafe lives up to its name

            Neighbors Cafe lives up to its name

            REVIEW | “Raya and the Last Dragon”

            REVIEW | “Raya and the Last Dragon”

            TikTok’s Three Ingredient Creme Brûlée: Is it Worth it?

            TikTok’s Three Ingredient Creme Brûlée: Is it Worth it?

            A trip to the Cat Cafe

            A trip to the Cat Cafe

            Attemping to make the Korean Minimalistic Cake

            Attemping to make the Korean Minimalistic Cake

            Spend your Sunday afternoons studying at Windows Cafe

            Spend your Sunday afternoons studying at Windows Cafe

            Eco-friendly brands that reduce climate impact

            Eco-friendly brands that reduce climate impact

            Diamonds and Dior lead to deeper conversations in Netflix’s “Bling Empire”

            Diamonds and Dior lead to deeper conversations in Netflix’s “Bling Empire”

            National Taichung Theater: the best architectural phenomenon that showcases musicals

            National Taichung Theater: the best architectural phenomenon that showcases musicals

          • Multimedia
          No Result
          View All Result
          The Blue & Gold
          No Result
          View All Result
          Home News

          Uncovering Harvard professor’s distorted narrative of Comfort Women

          by The Blue & Gold
          03/10/2021
          in News
          0
          Uncovering Harvard professor’s distorted narrative of Comfort Women

          Comfort women were coerced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japan government to provide sexual services to the army troops before and during World War II. [Photo Courtesy of US National Archives]

          0
          SHARES
          95
          VIEWS
          Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

          By: Lana L. (’22)

          Comfort women were coerced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japan government to provide sexual services to the army troops before and during World War II. [Photo Courtesy of US National Archives] 

          A Harvard University professor who falsely argued in his recent paper that Korean “comfort women” were voluntary prostitutes, not sex slaves exploited by the Imperial Japanese Army, has incited international controversy and outrage. 

          Mitsubishi Professor of Japanese Legal Studies J. Mark Ramseyer’s paper, “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War,” will be published in the March issue of the International Review of Law and Economics. However, its early feature in a press release in January and his former opinion article in the Sankei Shimbun — a conservative Japanese newspaper — arguing that the comfort-women-sex-slave story is “pure fiction” were immediately met by widespread criticism worldwide, especially in the Harvard community and Korea. 

          Portrait of professor Ramseyer [Courtesy of Harvard Law School Website]

          Who were “Comfort Women”?

          “Comfort women” euphamizes women coerced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japan government to provide sexual services to the army troops before and during World War II. At least 200,000 women are known to be involved, of which the majority were from Korea, in addition to a small number of women from China, Taiwan and other Asian countries. 

          The Japanese military administered a massive human trafficking scheme chiefly through kidnapping and attracting young girls with feigned employment promises. They were subsequently placed in brothels called “comfort stations,” designed to relieve Japanese soldiers of their distress. In them, women lived in a state of perpetual fear of endless rapes, violence and even murder, in the case of resistance. 

          First footage of comfort women in 73 years from 1944, discovered by the Seoul University Human Rights Research Center in 2017. Footage features seven anxious women, including a fully pregnant woman, lined up outside the brick house that served as a military brothel for Japanese soldiers. [Video courtesy of KBS]

          After the end of the war, women who survived commonly suffered physical and psychological illnesses, as well as marginalization from the Japanese, let alone from their families and communities. 

          Despite the ongoing fight for a formal apology and recompensation by South Korea’s government and women’s and human rights organizations, the Japanese government has denied any legal responsibility for the maintenance of the comfort women system to this day. 

          With only 15 survivors still alive, South Korea and international supporters are strengthening their efforts with urgency to receive the rightful restitution while their voices can still be directly heard.

          Only 15 survivors remain from the comfort women system, still waiting for justice. [Photo Courtesy of The Associated Press]

          There is no doubt that comfort women still remains a sensitive topic in both Japan and Korea; that Ramseyer’s recent statements provoked a furious response among the South Korean — and international — community is expected. 

          The Paper’s Flaws and Illegitimacy 

          The misleading narrative Ramseyer builds portrays comfort women as prostitutes who willingly negotiated contractual relationships with brothel owners, who were unassociated with the Japanese government. They supposedly had the freedom to compromise on the length of their terms and wages. 

          Here, more than one aspect of his logic is critically flawed. 

          While he claims that the brothel operators were unaffiliated with the Japanese government, Japanese government documents prove that the military confidentially appointed officers to operate comfort stations. 

          Teenage girls — as young as 8 — were defrauded into sexual slavery through false promises of high education or safe employment that could help relieve their family debts. Though, most girls were violently taken from their families against their will. 

          Teenage girls, as young as 8, were defrauded into sexual slavery. [Photo courtesy of Imperial War Museums]

          Moreover, scholars have pointed out that his arguments are not supported by any signed contracts with Korean women. “There were no contracts involving Korean women at wartime comfort stations cited, nor secondary sources detailing those contracts, nor even any third-party accounts that confirm the relevant terms,” according to another Harvard historian invited to write a response to Ramseyer’s paper. 

          His credibility is further put into question as he omits any reference to reports from decades of scholarly research by both Korean and international organizations, such as the United Nations, which unanimously discern that comfort women were “military sexual slaves” who were “treated with violence and savagery.” 

          While it is standard practice for respectable scholars to recognize possible biases and to refer to diverse sources, Ramseyer utterly disregards factual scholarly evidence recognized universally, not to mention the plethora of testimonies from both dead and surviving victims he overlooks. 

          He justified this omission by stating that he is “very upfront” about his inability to read Korean  when asked by The Harvard Crimson. This very exclusion of factual evidence makes possible Ramseyer’s erasure of war crimes entailing human rights violations. 

          The B&G interviewed Ms. Hye Ryoung Rhee, an US history teacher of Korean descent. [Video Courtesy of Lana Lee]

          International Outcry Stoked by Ramseyer

          Ramseyer’s attempt to obscure a critical piece of history under the neo-Japanese motif has been responded with active retaliation from various groups of scholars and South Koreans. 

          Many have written open letters and petitions, which have garnered at least a total of 10,000 signatures. 

          The Korean Association of Harvard Law School published a statement early February denouncing his paper as “factually inaccurate and misleading.” The Korean International Student Association at Harvard has also demanded an apology from Ramseyer. 

          A transnational group of historians, alarmed by the degree of “distortion, misrepresentation, misdirection, and omission of historical sources”, demanded retraction of Ramseyer’s paper for academic misconduct, reasoning that he misrepresented his sources, whose accurate portrayal would cause “the argument [to] collapse.” 

          Likewise, UCLA professor Chwe’s letter condemned Ramseyer for “using economics—more specifically game theory and law and economics—as a cover to legitimize horrific atrocities.” and demanded the paper’s retraction. It has been signed by more than 2,000 prominent economists and journal editors worldwide as of late February. 

          In South Korea, Ramseyer’s paper made headlines across the nation’s media and was met with widespread public anger after its press release in Sankei Shimbun. 

          South Korean civilian groups have condemned and protested against Ramseyer’s injustice towards the comfort women. [Photo Courtesy of Yonhap News]

          Many Korean media outlets and scholars suspect a sponsorship by the Japanese corporation Mitsubishi Group, which donated $1.5 million to Harvard to endow his professorship in the 1970s. Others suspect that his connection with the Japanese government influenced his work. He received the Order of the Rising Sun award, a Japanese government distinction for those who promote Japanese culture abroad, in 2018. 

          Even Japanese scholars’ societies and civic groups like Fight for Justice have organized seminars concerning Ramseyer’s historical distortion to demand a formal apology from him. 

          As a response to the continued public fury, the The International Review of Law and Economics editorial team issued an emergency “Expression of Concern” in mid-February, explaining that “concerns have been raised regarding the historical evidence.” The print publication is currently delayed temporarily so these concerns can be investigated and critical comments can be published alongside the paper to give readers a comprehensive perspective. 

          Remseyer’s paper aligns with the age-old, continuous efforts of the conservative Japanese to unjustly deny the suffering of these women. Through his defective works, he has committed a disservice to not only the few surviving comfort women today — many of whom are still waiting for justice — but to the South Korean society, where the discussion of the sex slavery system has only recently been instigated after the decades-long stigmatization of the topic of prostitution. 

          Tags: highlight
          The Blue & Gold

          The Blue & Gold

          Next Post
          Attemping to make the Korean Minimalistic Cake

          Attemping to make the Korean Minimalistic Cake

          Latest Print Issue

          March 2021: a Blue & Gold Playlist

          Currently Playing

          Best of 49 | When was the last time you cried?

          Best of 49 | When was the last time you cried?

          00:01:38

          Best of 49 | How many people do you say "I love you" to?

          00:02:36

          B&G Worth It: 100 NT Beef Noodles vs. 10,000 NT Beef Noodles

          00:11:40

          Thoughts on Femininity

          00:03:47

          BOOK RECOMMENDATION | "Throne of Glass" series

          00:06:40

          About B&G

          The Blue & Gold

          The Blue & Gold strives to represent the school as whole, showcasing hidden personalities and covering events and issues that affect the school and community.

          Contact Us

          The Blue & Gold welcomes any questions, opinions, comments, or suggestions. To contact us, please email Natalie S., our Editor-in-Chief, at 21natalies@students.tas.tw. You can also email Ms. Kundel, our advisor, at kundell@tas.tw.

          Submission Policy

          All submissions should be submitted by email to blueandgold@tas.tw. Submissions will then be evaluated by the editors and Ms. Kundel, the Journalism advisor. Submissions will either be published online or in the print edition of The Blue & Gold.

          • ISM
          • ISKL
          • SAS
          • ISB
          • JIS

          © The Blue & Gold 2018

          No Result
          View All Result
          • Home
          • News
          • Sports
          • Opinion
          • Features
          • Verdict
            • Movies
            • The B&G Book Corner
          • Multimedia

          © The Blue & Gold 2018

          Login to your account below

          Forgotten Password?

          Fill the forms bellow to register

          All fields are required. Log In

          Retrieve your password

          Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

          Log In