John Mark Ramseyer, Harvard Law School Professor (right)/ Photo = Harvard Law School Public Video Capture
[아시아경제 이주미 인턴기자] The aftermath of a dissertation by John Mark Ramsey, a professor at Harvard University Law School, who defined Japanese military comfort women victims as “voluntary prostitutes,” is intensifying both inside and outside Harvard. While the Harvard campus newspaper reports on the loopholes in the thesis, criticism is growing among Korean students at Harvard University.
In an article published on the 7th (local time),’The Harvard Crimson’, an in-school newspaper at Harvard University, carried criticism from both inside and outside, saying that there is an international controversy over Professor Ramsey’s claim.
The newspaper reported that many legal scholars and historians in South Korea and the United States determined that there were some flaws in Professor Ramsey’s arguments and raised questions about the source of the paper.
Carter Eckerty, who teaches Korean history at Harvard University, said that the paper was “experientially, historically and morally miserably flawed.” He and Andrew Gordon, professor of history, are preparing a journal to refute Ramsey’s arguments. .
Alexis Duden, a professor of history at the University of Connecticut, said, “It is an academic work that is poorly based on the basis of the evidence and the scholarly evidence is taken into consideration.” It was written as” he claimed.
Korean students at Harvard University also voiced criticism toward Professor Ramsey.
The Harvard Law School Korean Student Association (KAHLS) issued a statement on the 4th that it “strongly condemns human rights violations and the deliberate deletion of war crimes”, and 800 law school students from all over the United States were listed in the statement.
They criticized “Professor Ramzier’s argument is inaccurate and misleading,” and that “the government insists that prostitution has not been forced without conclusive evidence.”
The Harvard Undergraduate Korean Student Association (KISA) is also planning to submit a petition to the university requesting Professor Ramsey’s apology and withdrawal of the thesis.
Professor Ramsey said that the backlash was “the responsibility of the law school students,” and that “I am willing to talk to students about the thesis.”
Previously, Professor Ramsey said in a dissertation entitled’Contracting for sex in the Pacific War’, the comfort women of the Japanese military at the time were certified prostitutes, and they were not’sex slaves’ who were kidnapped by Japan and forced to prostitute. Insisted that it caused international controversy.
Harvard University newspaper’Crimson’ website
Reporter Lee Joo-mi [email protected]