WAR IS RAPE
North Korea slams Harvard Law professor for 'comfort women' article
North Korea addressed the issue of a controversial "comfort women" article on Monday, weeks after Harvard Law professor J. Mark Ramseyer came under criticism for his characterization of former victims of wartime brothels.
File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo
March 2 (UPI) -- North Korea condemned a Harvard Law professor and his article on "comfort women" in a television documentary that addressed Japan's wartime crimes and featured an alleged descendant of a former victim.
Korea Central Television on Monday aired the film that included denouncements of J. Mark Ramseyer, the Mitsubishi professor of Japanese legal studies at Harvard Law School, as a "pseudo-scholar" with a "pro-Japanese bias."
The documentary featured previously released footage, including a South Korean interview with Park Yeong-sim, a comfort woman who passed away in 2006. In the interview, Park says a Japanese policeman wearing a red cap coerced her to follow him "to make some money."
The North Korean film also included an interview with a North Korean man identified as Jong Yun Chol. Jong claimed he is Park's grandson. Park lived in the South until the time of her death.
March 2 (UPI) -- North Korea condemned a Harvard Law professor and his article on "comfort women" in a television documentary that addressed Japan's wartime crimes and featured an alleged descendant of a former victim.
Korea Central Television on Monday aired the film that included denouncements of J. Mark Ramseyer, the Mitsubishi professor of Japanese legal studies at Harvard Law School, as a "pseudo-scholar" with a "pro-Japanese bias."
The documentary featured previously released footage, including a South Korean interview with Park Yeong-sim, a comfort woman who passed away in 2006. In the interview, Park says a Japanese policeman wearing a red cap coerced her to follow him "to make some money."
The North Korean film also included an interview with a North Korean man identified as Jong Yun Chol. Jong claimed he is Park's grandson. Park lived in the South until the time of her death.
RELATED Activists call for boycott of Mitsubishi amid 'comfort women' uproar
"My grandmother passed away without receiving an apology or compensation from the Japanese government," Jong said in the North Korean program.
State media rarely reports on developments outside the country but has previously covered news related to Japan's colonial past.
Ramseyer's paper has come under criticism at Harvard, where the Undergraduate Council voted to endorse a statement that described the article, "Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War," as "contrafactual," according to the Harvard Crimson on Monday.
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Professors at Harvard have also condemned Ramseyer's paper.
"As historians of Japan and Korea, what initially appalled us was Ramseyer's elision of the larger political and economic contexts of colonialism and gender in which the comfort women system was conceived and implemented, and the multiple and brutal ways in which it affected and afflicted the women on a human scale," wrote Andrew Gordon and Carter Eckert.
Gordon and Eckert said Ramseyer failed to find evidence of contracts concluded in Korea with Korean women. Ramseyer used "barmaid" contracts with Japanese women as a substitute source to build his argument about Korean victims of wartime brothels, Gordon and Eckert said.
Professors at Harvard have also condemned Ramseyer's paper.
"As historians of Japan and Korea, what initially appalled us was Ramseyer's elision of the larger political and economic contexts of colonialism and gender in which the comfort women system was conceived and implemented, and the multiple and brutal ways in which it affected and afflicted the women on a human scale," wrote Andrew Gordon and Carter Eckert.
Gordon and Eckert said Ramseyer failed to find evidence of contracts concluded in Korea with Korean women. Ramseyer used "barmaid" contracts with Japanese women as a substitute source to build his argument about Korean victims of wartime brothels, Gordon and Eckert said.
Activists call for boycott of Mitsubishi
amid 'comfort women' uproar
Activists are calling for a boycott of Mitsubishi products as controversy grows over an article about "comfort women" by Harvard Law professor J. Mark Ramseyer. File Photo by John G. Mabanglo/EPA-EFE
March 1 (UPI) -- Online activists are calling for the boycott of Mitsubishi products less than a month after a Harvard law professor came under criticism for his article on "comfort women."
Korean Americans affiliated with community groups in California said in the statement on Change.org that they are calling for a comprehensive boycott of products from the Japanese company to protest J. Mark Ramseyer, South Korean news service News 1 reported Monday
Ramseyer is the Mitsubishi professor of Japanese legal studies at Harvard Law School.
"Please join us in boycotting all Mitsubishi products, including but not limited to vehicles, TVs, and electronic parts, as well as AC and HVAC systems," the statement read.
"To continue to patronize Mitsubishi would be to give tacit endorsement to the outrageous and insulting claims made by Prof. Ramseyer, who occupies the chair endowed by the Mitsubishi Corporation."
In an article that published online by the International Review of Law and Economics, Ramseyer had said that comfort women, many of them teenage girls, took part in a "consenting, contractual process."
Ramseyer has said he did not cite any Korean sources for the paper. Victims have said they were raped daily and beaten in brothels and witnessed the death of women who fell ill from disease or exhaustion.
The petition, which collected more than 1,000 signatures Monday, is being circulated at a time when other Korean American groups are raising awareness about the issue.
Baik-kyu Kim, chair of the Atlanta Comfort Women Memorial Task Force in Georgia, recently held a rally condemning Ramseyer.
Heather Fenton, mother of U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., took part in the rally in Atlanta, South Korean television network JTBC reported Monday.
The Korean American Society of Massachusetts also said it plans to hold a rally on Saturday outside Harvard University.
Harvard Law students previously have said Ramseyer ignored important research that indicates the women were coerced or kidnapped by agents of the Japanese government during World War II.
Activists are calling for a boycott of Mitsubishi products as controversy grows over an article about "comfort women" by Harvard Law professor J. Mark Ramseyer. File Photo by John G. Mabanglo/EPA-EFE
March 1 (UPI) -- Online activists are calling for the boycott of Mitsubishi products less than a month after a Harvard law professor came under criticism for his article on "comfort women."
Korean Americans affiliated with community groups in California said in the statement on Change.org that they are calling for a comprehensive boycott of products from the Japanese company to protest J. Mark Ramseyer, South Korean news service News 1 reported Monday
Ramseyer is the Mitsubishi professor of Japanese legal studies at Harvard Law School.
"Please join us in boycotting all Mitsubishi products, including but not limited to vehicles, TVs, and electronic parts, as well as AC and HVAC systems," the statement read.
"To continue to patronize Mitsubishi would be to give tacit endorsement to the outrageous and insulting claims made by Prof. Ramseyer, who occupies the chair endowed by the Mitsubishi Corporation."
In an article that published online by the International Review of Law and Economics, Ramseyer had said that comfort women, many of them teenage girls, took part in a "consenting, contractual process."
Ramseyer has said he did not cite any Korean sources for the paper. Victims have said they were raped daily and beaten in brothels and witnessed the death of women who fell ill from disease or exhaustion.
The petition, which collected more than 1,000 signatures Monday, is being circulated at a time when other Korean American groups are raising awareness about the issue.
Baik-kyu Kim, chair of the Atlanta Comfort Women Memorial Task Force in Georgia, recently held a rally condemning Ramseyer.
Heather Fenton, mother of U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., took part in the rally in Atlanta, South Korean television network JTBC reported Monday.
The Korean American Society of Massachusetts also said it plans to hold a rally on Saturday outside Harvard University.
Harvard Law students previously have said Ramseyer ignored important research that indicates the women were coerced or kidnapped by agents of the Japanese government during World War II.
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