Early last year, Harvard Law School Professor J. seyer published a controversial paper on Imperial Japan’s World War II practice of impressing women from occupied territories into sexual slavery. This paper naturally drew ire from many scholars, with critics alleging deeply inadequate research and a fundamental misunderstanding of both facts and context. Students from the Law School and College responded with outcry as well.
In response to this broad criticism, Ramseyer released another paper last month, arguing that critics failed to address its “actual topic,” which he claimed was “exclusively descriptive.” In turn, some of the original critics claimed that Ramseyer did not address many of their concerns, instead mischaracterizing their critiques so that he could deflect the major points of criticism made.
We affirm our belief that Ramseyer’s dangerous and broadly unfounded ideas must be called out for what they are and be condemned by Harvard as well as the broader academic community. Continue reading “He argued that the victims of the practice – often euphemized as “comfort women”- were better understood as recruited sex workers”