[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] It has been revealed that John Mark Ramseyer, a professor at Harvard Law School who published a paper distorting the Japanese military comfort women victims as prostitutes, serves as an executive of a Japanese right-wing research organization.
According to Yonhap News, Ramseyer is listed among the executives on the website of the right-wing research group 'Japan Civilization Research Forum.'
Among the nine executives of this research group, three are non-Japanese scholars, including Professor Ramseyer, Professor Jason Morgan of Japan's Reitaku University, and Professor Kevin Doak of Georgetown University.
Among them, Professor Morgan is a person who consistently expressed gratitude in the prefaces of Ramseyer's historically distorted papers.
Professor Doak, a Japanologist, has also caused controversy with pro-Japanese remarks.
He defended the Japanese Prime Minister's visit to Yasukuni Shrine and made an unfounded claim that Korea's criticism of Yasukuni was "to send a message to North Korea that they are also an anti-Japanese (反日) nation."
Meanwhile, the Japan Civilization Research Forum deleted the executive list including Ramseyer from its website shortly after his executive position was revealed.
Professor John Mark Ramseyer of Harvard Law School, USA, who published a paper distorting the victims of Japanese military sexual slavery as prostitutes [Image source=Yonhap News]
Meanwhile, criticism continues regarding the 'Ramseyer paper' incident, which denies the occurrence of Japanese military comfort women victimization and insults the victims.
On the 5th, 39 civic academic organizations from Korea, China, and Japan held a press conference and issued a statement demanding that Mark Ramseyer of Harvard University retract his comfort women paper.
They stated, "Professor Ramseyer ignored abundant evidence and testimonies proving forced mobilization and human rights violations," and urged, "He should retract the paper himself, and the International Review of Law and Economics should also review and retract the paper."
They also criticized, "Through other papers, Professor Ramseyer distorted the massacre of Koreans by Japanese during the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and asserted discriminatory views against minorities in Japan such as Zainichi Koreans."
Seung-ro Lee, Mayor of Seongbuk-gu, and students from Gyeseong High School were cleaning the Korean-Chinese Peace Statue, which had been installed earlier that day, before holding a picketing protest against the controversial paper by Harvard University professor Mark Ramseyer on the morning of February 25 at the Fountain Square in Seongbuk-gu, Seoul. [Photo by Yonhap News]
Amid worldwide criticism of Ramseyer's paper, the Korea Women's Human Rights Institute announced today (the 6th) that it will hold an international academic conference on the 14th to discuss the core issues of the comfort women problem triggered by the 'Ramseyer paper incident.'
The conference will be held online via video conference at the Korea Women's Human Rights Institute in Jung-gu, Seoul, in the afternoon of the same day, co-hosted by the Institute for Research on Japanese Military Comfort Women and the Northeast Asian History Foundation.
The Women's Human Rights Institute stated, "So far, academic discussions related to Ramseyer's paper have focused on criticizing the 'content of the paper.' However, this conference will address the core issues of comfort women victims, such as 'comfort stations' and the 'licensed prostitution system,' along with the historical authenticity of comfort women victimization and methods of historical distortion."
At this conference, Professor Alexis Dudden of the University of Connecticut and Professor Chalcy Sandy Schieder of Japan's Aoyama Gakuin University will emphasize 'academic integrity,' meaning that academic freedom must be based on academic truth. They will also cite Ramseyer's paper as a negative example in historical research and prove it to be an 'academic misconduct.'
Applications to participate in the academic conference are available through the Korea Women's Human Rights Institute website until the 13th, and anyone can participate and make statements or ask questions about the presentation topics through prior registration.
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