Reaction against the Denial of Comfort Women’s Voices and Truth
By Karly Jung
Associate Editor, Vol. 26
Across the globe, academics and activists mobilized to thoroughly examine a Harvard professor’s characterization of “comfort women” as prostitutes.[1] So-called “comfort women” consisted of women and girls from various countries (though primarily from Korea, a colony of Japan at the time) who were taken to warfront “comfort stations” during the Second World War to provide sexual services to soldiers in the Japanese military forces.[2] None of this was consensual. [3] Yet, in December, 2020, J. Mark Ramseyer released his paper, “Contracting for sex in the Pacific war,” in the academic, peer-reviewed journal International Review of Law and Economics.[4] Using game theory as a theoretical framework, Ramseyer purported to show that the comfort woman system was voluntary and contractual in nature.[5] He claimed that comfort women willingly “chose prostitution over other opportunities” to move past their poverty.[6]
Ramseyer’s claims jolted many in the academic community into action to verify whether any evidence could substantiate Ramseyer’s claims.[7] Academics were alarmed by the deficiency of evidence and the unsound premises which served as the foundation of Ramseyer’s assertions.[8]
Two Harvard historians, Andrew Gordon and Carter Eckert, were amongst those invited to draft a response to Ramseyer.[9] Gordon and Eckert delved through Ramseyer’s footnotes and found that though the academic article was premised on a system of contracts, they could not find any citations to contracts with the women at the comfort stations, secondary sources on such contracts, or third-party accounts substantiating such contracts.[10] The seemingly most relevant source also fell short, as Ramseyer pointed to a pre-war, sample contract of Japanese women employed as barmaids from 1938.[11] The historians concluded that it was not “reasonable to infer, from sample prewar or wartime prostitution contracts for Japanese women, that Korean women entered similarly termed or structured contracts for sex work serving the Japanese military at the front.”[12] Having found no evidence to substantiate Ramseyer’s claims, Eckert and Gordon wrote to the journal, International Review of Law and Economics, to express a concern with the academic integrity of the article; the journal promptly “issued an ‘Expression of Concern,’ alerting readers that ‘concerns have been raised regarding the historical evidence’ in the article, and that the ‘claims are currently being investigated.’”[13]
Economists too chimed in to raise an alarm at the threat to academic integrity that Ramseyer’s article posed. Michael Chwe, a U.C.L.A. economist galvanized a group of economists to write a letter addressing the journal and Ramseyer’s article.[14] The economists explained that even if a signed contract did exist, still, this issue could not be framed as contractual.[15] This is because “contract analysis assumes voluntary bargaining by free agents, and that when sex is mandatory, without the option to refuse or walk away, it cannot fairly be described as contractual.”[16] Throughout history, instances of fraud and coercion disguised as contracts are familiar.[17]
Here, not only is there no evidence of any such contract in the first place, but also evidence to the contrary is abundant. The well-documented testimonies of comfort women have confirmed the lack of consent and free will in the comfort woman system.[18] Recruitment of women and girls to comfort stations included abduction, deception, threats, and violence.[19] Once the women arrived to the war-front stations, the women suffered rape, physical torture, and other atrocities.[20] These facts have been affirmed by the United Nations, Amnesty International, and the U.S. House of Representatives.[21]
When Ramseyer failed to give credence to the testimonies of the former comfort women, he effectively silenced their voices. One might think that in endeavoring to study a phenomena concerning a group of people, those very people and their experiences are fundamental to achieve understanding. To Ramseyer, however, the true experiences and of these women remained invisible.
On February 16, Lee Yong-soo spoke at an event hosted by the Asian-American student group at Harvard Law School.[22] Known as Grandma Lee, Lee Yong-soo is a former comfort woman who has fought for years, alongside other survivors, in demanding that the Japanese government take full legal responsibility for their actions.[23] Now, she pushes for a judgment from the United Nations’ International Court of Justice to bring closure to this painful history.[24] Japan’s acceptance of legal responsibility would afford comfort women the recognition they deserve: an acknowledgement that their experiences are heard and believed, and their humanity seen.
[1] Youmi Kim & Mike Ives, A Harvard Professor Called Wartime Sex Slaves ‘Prostitutes.’ One Pushed Back., N.Y. Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/26/world/asia/harvard-professor-comfort-women.html.
[2] Letter by Concerned Economists Regarding “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War” in the International Review of Law and Economics, http://chwe.net/irle/letter/.
[3] Letter by Concerned Economists Regarding “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War” in the International Review of Law and Economics, http://chwe.net/irle/letter/.
[4] J. Mark Ramseyer, Contracting for sex in the Pacific War, 65 Int’l Rev. L. & Econ. 105975 (2021).
[5] Id. at 3.
[6] Id. at 2.
[7] Youmi Kim & Mike Ives, A Harvard Professor Called Wartime Sex Slaves ‘Prostitutes.’ One Pushed Back., N.Y. Times (Feb. 26, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/26/world/asia/harvard-professor-comfort-women.html.
[8] Jeannie Suk Gersen, Seeking the True Story of the Comfort Women, New Yorker, https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/seeking-the-true-story-of-the-comfort-women-j-mark-ramseyer.
[9] Jeannie Suk Gersen, Seeking the True Story of the Comfort Women, New Yorker, https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/seeking-the-true-story-of-the-comfort-women-j-mark-ramseyer.
[10] Jeannie Suk Gersen, Seeking the True Story of the Comfort Women, New Yorker, https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/seeking-the-true-story-of-the-comfort-women-j-mark-ramseyer.
[11] Jeannie Suk Gersen, Seeking the True Story of the Comfort Women, New Yorker, https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/seeking-the-true-story-of-the-comfort-women-j-mark-ramseyer.
[12] Jeannie Suk Gersen, Seeking the True Story of the Comfort Women, New Yorker, https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/seeking-the-true-story-of-the-comfort-women-j-mark-ramseyer.
[13] Jeannie Suk Gersen, Seeking the True Story of the Comfort Women, New Yorker (Feb. 26, 2021), https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/seeking-the-true-story-of-the-comfort-women-j-mark-ramseyer.
[14] Letter by Concerned Economists Regarding “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War” in the International Review of Law and Economics, http://chwe.net/irle/letter/.
[15] Letter by Concerned Economists Regarding “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War” in the International Review of Law and Economics, http://chwe.net/irle/letter/.
[16] Jeannie Suk Gersen, Seeking the True Story of the Comfort Women, New Yorker, https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/seeking-the-true-story-of-the-comfort-women-j-mark-ramseyer.
[17] Letter by Concerned Economists Regarding “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War” in the International Review of Law and Economics, http://chwe.net/irle/letter/.
[18] Letter by Concerned Economists Regarding “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War” in the International Review of Law and Economics, http://chwe.net/irle/letter/.
[19] Letter by Concerned Economists Regarding “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War” in the International Review of Law and Economics, http://chwe.net/irle/letter/.
[20] Letter by Concerned Economists Regarding “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War” in the International Review of Law and Economics, http://chwe.net/irle/letter/ (last visited Feb. 28, 2021).
[21] Letter by Concerned Economists Regarding “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War” in the International Review of Law and Economics, http://chwe.net/irle/letter/.
[22] Kim Tong-Hyung, S. Korean Sexual Slavery Survivor Wants UN Court Judgment, ABC News,https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/korean-sexual-slavery-survivor-court-judgment-75917190.
[23] Kim Tong-Hyung, S. Korean Sexual Slavery Survivor Wants UN Court Judgment, ABC News, https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/korean-sexual-slavery-survivor-court-judgment-75917190.
[24] Kim Tong-Hyung, S. Korean Sexual Slavery Survivor Wants UN Court Judgment, ABC News, https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/korean-sexual-slavery-survivor-court-judgment-75917190.
