Statement by Al Roth, Craig and Susan McCaw Professor of Economics at Stanford University, 2012 Nobel Laureate, and Paul Milgrom, Shirley and Leonard Ely Professor of Humanities and Sciences, Department of Economics, Stanford University, 2020 Nobel Laureate. February 27, 2021.
Statement by Pinelopi Goldberg, Elihu Professor of Economics, Yale University, Former Chief Economist of the World Bank Group, Former Editor-in-Chief of the American Economic Review. February 26, 2021.
Statement by Roger Noll, Professor Emeritus of Economics, Stanford University. February 27, 2021.
Letter from Eyal Winter, Silverzweig Chair in Economics, The Center for the Study of Rationality, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Andrews and Elizabeth Brunner Chair in Economics, The Management School, Lancaster University, United Kingdom. March 1, 2021.
Statement by Steve Tadelis, Sarin Chair in Strategy and Leadership, Professor of Economics, Business and Public Policy, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley. March 3, 2021.
Letter by Tayfun Sönmez, Professor of Economics, Boston College. February 22, 2021.
Statement by Shengwu Li, Assistant Professor of Economics, Harvard University. February 24, 2021.
Letter by over 3000 signatories, including over 1100 professors of economics, over 350 professors who work in game theory, over 100 professors who are legal scholars, over 100 professors who work in Law and Economics, over 100 professors of history, over 330 professors who are scholars of Asia, and over 240 professors who are present or former editors or co-editors of scholarly journals. February 2021.
Statement by Concerned Graduate Students in the Humanities and Social Sciences at Harvard Regarding J. Mark Ramseyer’s “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War” in the International Review of Law and Economics.
Petition by Korean Association of Harvard Law School, February 4, 2021.
Petition by the Federation of Korean American Associations of North Eastern USA and Korean American associations from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Delaware, February 13, 2021.
Petition by Voluntary Agency Network of Korea, February 2021.
Statement and study aid by Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Professor Emerita of Japanese History, School of Culture, History and Language, ARC Laureate Fellow 2012, Australian National University. February 11, 2021.
Statement by Andrew Gordon, Professor, Department of History, and Carter Eckert, Professor, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University. February 17, 2021.
Mark Ramseyer published four articles (two articles published in peer-reviewed journals, and two discussion papers) about the Buraku issue from 2017 to 2020. Responses to them were slower to emerge than the ones to his work on “comfort women,” ianfu, but in the course of the last twelve months a number of historians, anthropologists and sociologists in Japan have produced critiques of his claims about Buraku history showing that they are based on equally flawed scholarship. This special issue comprises five statements originally written in Japanese pointing out his “misunderstandings,” accompanied by a joint statement by a group of two Japanese and two Anglophone social scientists on his research objectives and methodology, and a trenchant comprehensive joint statement produced by five Anglophone scholars who have a broad spectrum of expertise on the history and culture of Buraku communities. Special issue of The Asia-Pacific Journal, Japan Focus, edited by Ian Neary and Saito Naoko, with special issue coordinator Tomomi Yamaguchi.
Statement by Jeannie Suk Gersen, Professor, Harvard Law School, February 6, 2021.
Statement by Ustinia Dolgopol, Adjunct Associate Professor of Law, Flinders University of South Australia, February 2021.
“The Fallacy of Contract in Sexual Slavery,” by Yong-Shik Lee, Visiting Professor of Law, Georgia State University, Natsu Taylor Saito, Distinguished University Professor & Professor of Law, Georgia State University, and Jonathan Todres, Distinguished University Professor & Professor of Law, Georgia State University. February 2021.
Response to J. Mark Ramseyer’s Article, “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War,” Pyong Gap Min, Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and Director of the Research Center for Korean Community. February 10, 2021.
“Why I Pulled My Rebuttal from the International Review of Law and Economics,” by Jinah Kim, Associate Professor in Communication Studies, Faculty Affiliate in Asian Studies, California State University, Northridge. February 24, 2021. [Original letter, submitted on February 19, 2021, to the International Journal of Law and Economics but subsequently withdrawn by the author.]
Setting the Record Straight: Primary Sources and Evidence on “Comfort Women” Issues, hosted by UC Irvine School of Law. Alexis Dudden, Professor of History, University of Connecticut, Hye-in Han, Researcher, Asia Peace and History Institute, Paul Hoffman, Co-director, International Human Rights Clinic, UCI School of Law, Pyoung-Keun Kang, Professor, Public International Law, Korea University School of Law, Daniel Diaz, Director, UCLA History-Geography Project, and Chungmoo Choi, Associate Professor, East Asian Studies, UCI. May 20, 2021.
The Importance of Truth: Comfort Women and Beyond, hosted by the National Coalition of Korean American Bar Associations and the International Association of Korean Lawyers. Jeannie Suk Gersen, Harvard Law School, Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Australian National University, Norman Eisen, Brookings Institution. March 31, 2021.
Online-Lecture by Carol Gluck on Global Memory Culture and the “Comfort Women.” Online lecture hosted by the Institute of Culture Studies and Theatre History at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, in cooperation with the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Vienna. Carol Gluck, George Sansom Professor of History, Columbia University. March 18, 2021.
Academic Responsibility in the Case of the “Comfort Women.” A roundtable discussion hosted by Comfort Women Action for Redress and Education (CARE), with Michael Chwe, Professor of Political Science, UCLA, Alexis Dudden, Professor of History, University of Connecticut, Richard Painter, S. Walter Richey Professor of Corporate Law, University of Minnesota, and former chief White House ethics lawyer (2005-2007), and Peipei Qiu, Louise Boyd Dale and Alfred Lichtenstein Chair Professor of Japanese and Chinese, Vassar College. March 13, 2021.
Mistruth and Consequences: Feminist Scholars on “Comfort Women” Denialism and Grassroots Movements for Justice. Sung Sohn, Co-founder and executive director, Education for Social Justice Foundation, Alexis Dudden, Professor of History, University of Connecticut, Jinah Kim, Associate Professor of Communication Studies and faculty affiliate in Asian Studies, California State University, Northridge, and Kei Fischer, Chair of Ethnic Studies, Chabot College, Hayward, California. March 10, 2021.
The Comfort Women of Singapore in History and Memory, webinar at the National Heritage Board, Singapore. Kevin Blackburn, Associate Professor in History at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, March 6, 2021.
Panel Discussion and Film Screening of The Apology. A panel discussion with Todd A. Henry, Professor of History, UC San Diego, and Phyllis Kim, Executive Director of Comfort Women Action for Redress & Education (CARE), followed by the film screening ofThe Apology (2016), a documentary following the journeys of three former “comfort women” in South Korea, China, and the Philippines, February 19, 2021.
Open Letter to Eric Helland, Editor-in-Chief of the International Review of Law and Economics. February 24, 2021.
“Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War”: The Case for Retraction on Grounds of Academic Misconduct. A response by Amy Stanley, Professor of History, Northwestern University, Hannah Shepherd, Junior Research Fellow, Japanese & Korean History, Trinity College, University of Cambridge, Sayaka Chatani, Assistant Professor, Department of History, National University of Singapore, David Ambaras, Professor of History, North Carolina State University, and Chelsea Szendi Schieder, Associate Professor, Faculty of Economics, Aoyama Gakuin University. February 18, 2021.
Statement by the twelve editors of the American Political Science Review. Sharon D. Wright Austin, Professor of Political Science, University Term Professor, The University of Florida, Kelly M. Kadera, Associate Professor, Political Science, University of Iowa, Michelle L. Dion, Senator William McMaster Chair in Gender and Methodology and Associate Professor of Political Science, McMaster University (Canada), Clarissa Rile Hayward, Professor of Political Science, Washington University in St. Louis, Celeste Montoya, Associate Professor, Dept. of Women and Gender Studies, University of Colorado Boulder, Julie Novkov, Professor of Political Science and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University at Albany, SUNY, Valeria Sinclair-Chapman, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Purdue University, Dara Strolovitch, Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies and Affiliated Faculty, African American Studies and Politics, Princeton University, Aili Mari Tripp, Wangari Maathai Professor of Political Science & Gender and Women’s Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Denise M. Walsh, Associate Professor of Politics and Women, Gender & Sexuality, University of Virginia, S. Laurel Weldon, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Simon Fraser University, and Elisabeth Jean Wood, Crosby Professor of the Human Environment and Professor of Political Science, International and Area Studies, Yale University. March 2, 2021.
Statement by Arlene Cohen, Associate Professor of Library Science at the University of Guam (Retired), Bruce Fulton, Young-Bin Min Chair in Korean Literature and Literary Translation, University of British Columbia and co-translator of One Left, a translated first novel on comfort women in Korean, Ju-Chan Fulton, Co-translator of One Left, Nicola Henry, Associate Professor and Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia) and author of War and Rape: Law, Memory and Justice,Jinah Kim, Associate Professor, California State University, Northridge and author, PostcolonialGrief: The Afterlives of the Pacific Wars in the Americas,Miho Kim, Contract Researcher, Kwansei Gakuin University and Lecturer, San Francisco State University, Phyllis Kim, Activist, Executive Director, Comfort Women Action for Redress and Education (CARE), Ross King, Professor of Korean and Director, Centre for Korean Research, Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia, Eunah Lee, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, St. Joseph’s College, New York, Jungsil Lee, Chair, Washington Coalition for Comfort Women Issues, Inc. (WCCW), and co-editor with Dennis Halpin, Comfort Women, A Movement. . . , Bonnie B.C. Oh, Distinguished Professor of Korean Studies (Retired), Georgetown University and co-editor with Margaret D. Stetz, Legacies of Comfort Women of WWII, Lucy Paik, MD, FAAP, Pediatric Practice at Chicago, Chair of the Comfort Women Statue Erecting Committee, Peipei Qiu, co-author with Su Zhiliang and Chen Lifei, Chinese Comfort Women,Elizabeth W. Son, Associate Professor of Theater, Northwestern University and author, EmbodiedReckonings: “Comfort Women,” Performance, and Transpacific Redress,Margaret D. Stetz, Mae and Robert Carter Professor of Women’s Studies and Professor of Humanities, University of Delaware and co-editor, Legacies of Comfort Women of WWII, and Ji-Yeon Yuh, Associate Professor and founder of Asian American Studies, Northwestern University and author of Beyond the Shadow of Camptown. February 2021.
“Professor John Ramseyer’s Paper is Nothing Less than Infringement of Human Rights under the Guise of Academic Freedom.” Ok-Seon Lee, “comfort women” survivor, and Won-Woong Kim, Kwang-Ok Ryu, Sung-Woo Yang, Bong-Tae Choi, Jae-Hoon Chung, Young-Ju Ha, Bong-Su Jeong, Sung-Hoon Joo, Young-Hoon Jung, Ga-Hye Kim, Jung-Hee Kim, Ji-Won Lee, Ellim Oh, Dong-Min Park, Rae-Hyun Park, Dong-Joon Rhee, Seong-Hyun Roh, Dong-Wook Shin, Sang-Han Sim, Tae-Jung Yang, Su-mi Jeon, Jeong-A Heo, Sung-Nam Jeong, Sung-Hyun Jo, Dae-Wol Kim, Ye-Ji Ko, Wo-Kyung Lee, Eun-Kyung Ryu, Jong-Seon Won, Tsukasa Yajima, Young-Gil Song, Hyang-Ja Yang, Gang-Soo Jun, Yuji Hosaka, and Rachael Lee. March 1, 2021.
Statement of Condemnation (in English and Korean) from fifty Historical Societies and Civic Organizations of the Republic of Korea, Demanding Professor John Mark Ramseyer Stop Denying the Existence of Korean Comfort Women violated by the Japanese Troops. March 18, 2021.
Emergency Statement (in Japanese and Korean) by Japan-based Researchers and Activists Criticizing a New Form of Denialist Discourse on Japanese Imperial Military “Comfort Women.” Fight for Justice (The Japanese Military “Comfort Women” Issue Website Production Committee), the Historical Science Society of Japan, the Association of Historical Science, and the History Educationalist Conference of Japan. March 10, 2021.
Open Letter by Tsukasa Yajima, Beatrix Labbe, Katherine Watson, Misook Shin Marcus, Gabriel Berzinsky, Nicole Barta, Amanda Buck, and Tabea Stiehl, International Outreach Team of the House of Sharing and the Museum of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan. February 15, 2021.
Standing With the Truth: Stop Revisionist History About “Comfort Women.” Joint Statement of Bar Associations Representing Korean American Legal Communities. February 25, 2021.
Statement by Council of Korean Americans, February 11, 2021. “Council of Korean Americans Rejects Erasure of the Experiences of Comfort Women by Harvard Professor.”
City and County of San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Resolution denouncing the article, “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War,” written by J. Mark Ramseyer, of the Japanese Legal Studies at Harvard Law School, which denies the history of sexual enslavement of the hundreds of thousands of women by the Japanese Imperial Army during the Pacific War. April 6, 2021.
City of Philadelphia, Resolution No. 210175. Refuting the article, “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War,” which contradicts the historical consensus and evidence of the thousands of women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army before and during WWII, written by J. Mark Ramseyer: Mitsubishi Professor of Japanese Legal Studies at Harvard Law School. February 25, 2021.
US House Resolution 121: A resolution expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Government of Japan should formally acknowledge, apologize, and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner for its Imperial Armed Forces’ coercion of young women into sexual slavery, known to the world as “comfort women”, during its colonial and wartime occupation of Asia and the Pacific Islands from the 1930s through the duration of World War II. July 30, 2007.
Protecting the Rights of Comfort Women. Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and the Global Environment of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, US House of Representatives. February 15, 2007.
Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy. Report on the mission to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea and Japan on the issue of military sexual slavery in wartime, January 4, 1996.
Statement by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono on the Result of the Study on the Issue of “Comfort Women,” August 1993.
Statement by Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Kato on the Issue of the so-called “Wartime Comfort Women” from the Korean Peninsula, July 1992.
The International Review of Law and Economics released an Expression of Concern concerning the article “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War” on February 10, 2021 and released an updated Expression of Concern on March 9, 2021.
“Social Capital and the Problem of Opportunistic Leadership: The Example of Koreans in Japan,” European Journal of Law and Economics, February 2021. Editor’s note (February 23, 2021): “Readers are alerted that concerns have been raised with this article that are being considered by the editors. These concerns are being investigated and further appropriate editorial action will be taken as required, once the investigation into the concerns is complete and all parties have been given an opportunity to respond in full.”
