Professor Ramseyer: "Japanese Military Comfort Women Were Voluntary Prostitutes"
Media Watch: "Lee Yong-soo Repeatedly Lies... Harvard Testimony Seminar Should Be Canceled"
On the 15th, MBC's 'News Desk' reported that not only far-right figures in Korea but also Korean media outlets sent pressure emails to overseas professors criticizing Professor Ramseyer. Photo by MBC broadcast screen capture.
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-ju] A seminar is scheduled to be held the day after tomorrow at Harvard University in the United States to refute Professor Ramseyer's claim that comfort women were no different from prostitutes. Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that a domestic media outlet sent a pressure email demanding the cancellation of the event.
On the 15th, MBC's 'News Desk' reported that not only far-right figures in Korea but also Korean media outlets sent pressure emails to overseas professors criticizing Professor Ramseyer.
According to the report, the far-right online media outlet Media Watch sent an email to Harvard University faculty and students stating, "Grandmother Lee Yong-soo is a fake comfort woman," and "It is highly likely that she was just a prostitute rather than a victim of the Japanese military comfort women. Refuse the grandmother's lecture prepared by Harvard Law School the day after tomorrow," the content of the email was confirmed.
According to the Asian Students Association at Harvard Law School, an online seminar will be held on the 17th inviting Grandmother Lee Yong-soo and others to refute Professor Ramseyer's paper claiming that comfort women are fake. At the seminar, students plan to listen to testimonies from comfort women victims.
Media Watch wrote in an email titled "Boycott the 'Testimony Show' of Fake Comfort Women at Harvard," "We understand that Harvard is inviting a person named Lee Yong-soo to hold an event called 'Denial and Reversal of Comfort Women History.'"
They continued, "Lee Yong-soo was not a 'victim' of the Japanese military comfort women but was very likely an ordinary prostitute," they claimed.
On the 15th, MBC's 'News Desk' reported that not only South Korea's far-right figures but also domestic media outlets sent pressure emails to overseas professors criticizing Professor Ramseyer. Photo by MBC broadcast screen capture.
They added, "We hope that Harvard, which values truth, will not empower liars and later be very embarrassed," and "We are concerned that Harvard University's authority will be seriously damaged."
They argued that Grandmother Lee Yong-soo, who initially denied being a comfort woman victim, changed her statement in the 2000s to admit she was a victim, and therefore the event should not be held.
They also cited recent Korean media pointing out Lee Yong-soo's false testimonies as evidence, attaching YouTube videos from far-right figures.
However, the videos presented as evidence were YouTube videos they had produced themselves.
On the YouTube channel Media Watch TV, Kim Byung-heon, director of the Institute for Korean History Textbook Research, claimed, "When the rambling Lee Yong-soo changes her words morning and evening, one thing is clear: there is no truth. Every time she changes her words, the intensity of the lies increases. This person (Lee Yong-soo) is not a Japanese military comfort woman."
When asked about the purpose of sending emails pressuring the event's cancellation, a Media Watch official reiterated the position that "Lee Yong-soo's and others' testimonies cannot be trusted" and that Japanese military comfort women were no different from prostitutes.
Grandmother Lee Yong-soo's side stated that they do not consider it worth responding to these claims.
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