Ramseyer vs Japan

J. Mark Ramseyer probably thought he'd get more praise from his sponsors after publishing yet another revisionist piece. All he managed to do is to bring all spotlight precisely where Japanese extreme-right and Nippon Kaigi don't want them: on their own lies and imposture. 

Make no mistake about what this is all about: 

• an insult to the victims of Imperial Japan's sexual slavery system (a.k.a. 'Comfort Women').
  
• an insult to academic standards, and a disgrace for a Harvard Law School professor
  
• a threat for Japan democracy, helping revisionism permeate society

THE IRLE - RAMSEYER SCANDAL TIMELINE

In case you missed the latest Ramseyer controversies:

• Dec. 1, 2020: International Review of Law and Economics (in IRLE Volume 65) publishes online 'Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War', a controversial paper where J. Mark Ramseyer claims that there was no case of sexual slavery for the Imperial military, only consensual, contractual prostitution.
  NB: a Mitsubishi Professor of Japanese Legal Studies at Harvard Law School, Ramseyer is listed under the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, but mercifully doesn't appear in RIJS' Constitutional Revision Research Project (he probably would neither pass the academic cut, nor last a minute in front of Alexis Dudden, an advisor to the project).
  
  
• Jan. 12, 2021: "Recovering the Truth about the Comfort Women", a Ramseyer op-ed rolling out the same fallacies, is published by Japan Forward, a English arm of the ultraconservative Sankei Shimbun and a mouthpiece for ultranationalist and revisionist propaganda*.
  
  
• International outrage ensues, particularly from actual scholars and experts. Among others:
• "An article containing this level of academic misconduct should not have passed peer review, or have been published in an academic journal" ("Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War”: The Case for Retraction on Grounds of Academic Misconduct" - Amy Stanley, Hannah Shepherd, Sayaka Chatani, David Ambaras and Chelsea Szendi Schieder in The Asia Pacific Journal, 20210218). 
• "For those who read Professor Ramseyer’s article at face value, unseen are assertions that advocate a current Japanese political ideology. This worldview is racially essentialist, revanchist, and history-denying. (...) One of the primary reasons for studying any state-sponsored atrocity in the past is to learn how it happened in order to try to prevent ongoing occurrences of similar violence and not to abuse history by weaponizing it for present purposes. Academic freedom is a core tenet of constitutional democracies, yet academic lies are not." ("The Abuse of History: A Brief Response to J. Mark Ramseyer’s 'Contracting for Sex'" - Alexis Dudden in The Asia Pacific Journal 202102)
• "Any scholar who understands the falsity of its claims would condemn the article and call for its retraction" ("Letter by Concerned Economists Regarding “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War” in the International Review of Law and Economics")
  
• "I don’t have any Korean contracts" (a candid confession by Ramseyer himself, who built his case on them, to Jeannie Suk Gersen, who saves Harvard's honor in this excellent and damning piece: "Seeking the True Story of the Comfort Women" - The New Yorker 20210226) 
• 
  
• see also 4 letters on APJIF: apjjf.org/2021/5/ToC2.html **
  
• see also Michael Chwe's list of resources on the Ramseyer IRLE controversy: chwe.net/irle/   
• sign the "Letter by Concerned Economists Regarding “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War” in the International Review of Law and Economics" : chwe.net/irle/letter/
  
  
• Jan. 14, 2021: IRLE postpones the publication of the printed version of its Volume 65 (March issue), but still plans to include Ramseyer's piece, along with comments and replies ("Journal Delays Print Publication of Harvard Law Professor’s Controversial ‘Comfort Women’ Article Amid Outcry" - The Harvard Crimson 20210214)
  
  
• Jan. 20, 2021: Alon Harel, co-editor, confirmed that Ramseyer will 'revise significantly' another controversial paper ("Privatizing Police: Japanese Police, The Korean Massacre, And Private Security Firms" - The Cambridge Handbook of Privatization, June 2019) in which, 'citing rumors, (Ramseyer) depicted Koreans at the time of the post-earthquake chaos around Tokyo in 1923 as "gangs" that "torched buildings, planted bombs, poisoned water supplies" and murdered and raped people' ("Harvard professor Ramseyer to revise paper on 1923 massacre of Koreans in Japan: Cambridge handbook editor" - YNA 20210220) 
  

 

EXPOSING REVISIONISTS TO HELP THE VICTIMS OF IMPERIAL JAPAN, BUT ALSO TO SAVE  JAPAN'S POSTWAR DEMOCRACY
 

Exposing Ramseyer's lies helped the powerful voice of our dear LEE Yong-soo Halmoni resonate even more powerfully. Let's hope that next time the World hears her voice, will be when she represents the victims of Imperial Japan's sex slavery system at the ICJ (sad to see her make the headlines only when thugs attack the victims - see "Eternal Shame").

Needless to say, IRLE should withdraw the paper, and Harvard Law School demand a retraction and official apologies from Ramseyer.

Now internationally disgraced as a liar and a mouthpiece for debunked, extremist theories, Ramseyer poses as the victim of a 'witch hunt'. Sounds familiar? If the international community reacted so quickly and unanimously, that's also because the World is witnessing revisionism at work on a much more recent event: the US insurrection and the Capital Riot that happened just days before Ramseyer published his op-ed in Japan Forward. 

Because Ramseyer's papers fit and feed perfectly the Nippon Kaigi propaganda and agenda, they contribute to undermine the postwar democracy that lobby has officially pledged to destroy. 

Again, this is not about Japan vs Korea, but about Imperial Japan vs Justice (and justice for Comfort Women), and about Imperial Japan vs postwar, democratic Japan. 

Of course, the weaponization of history mentioned by Dudden didn't start in 2021, and Japan is certainly not the only perpetrator in the region, but there cannot be reconciliation without truth, and democracies can't survive if they let these attacks go unpunished.

Because there should be zero tolerance against revisionism, the academic community is on the front line. And I was truly moved to see it react so quickly and accurately against Ramseyer's piece, with precisely a focus on truth and reconciliation, denying any opportunity for nationalists and hatemongers to exploit or to play ping pong with their counterparts.

Nippon Kaigi and Japanese revisionists are an easy target because they are brazenly stupid. They don't have to be smart because they're not facing any resistance at home, where they control the government and the media; most Japanese never heard of the lobby or their program. The most efficient way to deal with them is to simply expose them and their agenda (which they're stupid enough to proudly disclose) as they are.

The war on revisionism is tougher with more subtle perpetrators, and this episode reminded me of the academic struggle against the Discovery Institute and its Intelligent Design imposture in the US. There as well, far-right fundamentalists with a political agenda promoted falsehoods through propaganda campaigns that mimicked science but totally negated it. The aim was also to undermine democracy and its constitutional fundamentals, to pervert education, and to rewrite text books, but I.D. was more subtle in its approach. Their leaked, internal 'Wedge Document' explained how the public was to be fooled by a confusing blend of a caricature of science and a caricature of faith. To help spread the movement in Europe, mediocre or failed scholars were sponsored to publish pseudo-academic papers that fed the confusion. 

I'm not saying that Japanese extremists pay Ramseyer to publish his debunked junk, but I'm not sure that otherwise this excuse for a scholar could have gotten prestigious sponsors, let alone been awarded the Order of the... Rising Sun.

Seoul Village 2021
Welcome to our Korean Errlines! Follow Seoul Village on Facebook and Twitter, follow me on Instagram.
Download 'Seoul VillageS', the free ebook.

* including this one, from the tinfoil hat category: "Some Uncomfortable Truths About Comfort Women for the International Mob" (Archie Miyamoto 20210222)

 

"After #JMarkRamseyer, #JapanForward added yet another abject revisionist piece to its collection, this time from a #ArchieMiyamoto (https://japan-forward.com/some-uncomfortable-truths-about-comfort-women-for-the-international-mob/). Using the fact that #ImperialJapan crushed #Korea #resistance as a proof of the non existence of #sexslavery?! Really?!" (@theseoulvillage - 20210226)

** Including this brilliant toolkit to help you make up your own mind: "The ‘Comfort Women’ Issue, Freedom of Speech, and Academic Integrity: A Study Aid" (Tessa Morris-Suzuki - The Asia Pacific Journal 202102)

Eternal Shame

When LEE Yong-soo was a kid, she became one of Imperial Japan military's 200,000+ sex slaves. In 1992, she was among the first 'Comfort Women' who came out, overcoming their shame, and speaking about the unspeakable. And people listened to this amazing human being all the way to the States, where she helped Mike HONDA pass a landmark House Resolution (H.R. 121).

Long before Greta THUNBERG How-Dare-You-ed Donald TRUMP and other world leaders, the ever young Yong-soo Look-At-Me-ed Shinzo ABE with her powerful voice, the voice of hundreds of thousands of young girls who were stolen their youth, raped, tortured, murdered.

Now 91, she's still fighting for justice. As if fighting for the resolution of 'Comfort Women' tragedies were not enough, LEE Yong-soo has now to expose the corrupt pseudo-activists who used her and fellow survivors for their own profit. Over the past weeks, scandals around YOON Mee-hyang have been piling up at a CHOI Soon-sil / CHO Kuk pace. The ruling party keeps defending her as blindly as it did with CHO Kuk months ago (see "Moon Landing - The Cheong Wa Dae Curse"), and here again, they should be doing the exact opposite. At least, this time, MOON Jae-in avoids defending the culprit publicly...

Back in 2011 - "One Thousand Wednesdays"

Even before the prosecutor started investigating her, the public has judged YOON guilty on all charges. And just like with CHO Kuk, a large majority thinks she should resign (she was elected a MP last month). YOON doesn't seem to feel any remorse, and even displays the most shameless behaviors (accusing LEE of senility probably among her lowest lows). I only met YOON once, years ago, but she struck me as someone who preferred the status quo to compromise. She already measured her achievements in terms of real estate, and the actual resolution of the tragedy was much better heralded by LEE .

LEE Yong-soo Halmoni leaves a very different impression. She radiates energy, compassion, and humor. She fights for justice. Not for Korea, not against Japan. She aims at reconciliation to help both countries face the past and the future soundly, without fueling mutual hatred. She reaches for the youth not to indoctrinate them, but to help them make their own unbiased opinions.

We must keep demanding justice for the victims of Imperial Japan, we must now also demand justice for them as victims of pseudo-activists. Real activists and the ruling party should immediately stop defending YOON against LEE.

Don't they realize how bad you look when you chose the wrong side of justice? Don't they realize that CHO Kuk and YOON Mee-hyang scandals are all about people who corrupted activism, people who betrayed the very ideals they pretended to stand for? Don't they realize that supporting them blindly is the worst thing genuine activists should do?

The more YOON Mee-hyang tries to silence LEE Hamoni, the more it backfires. She eventually decided to remain below radar surface until parliamentary immunity protects her. But Korea shouldn't let that happen.

Imagine one instant if Dear LEE Yong-soo Halmoni were to pass away before Justice is delivered:

• We already know how History will judge all the Japanese governments that not only refused to resolve the 'Comfort Women' issues, but also tried to silence her and prevent Japan and the world from knowing about these atrocities.
• We can guess how History will remember YOON Mee-hyang
• But how would those who defended YOON against LEE ever forgive themselves? It's up to them to avoid eternal shame.

One sure thing: LEE Yong-soo Halmoni will forever stand as an inspiring hero, who overcame her shame to expose those who truly deserved it. Regardless of the flag or banner they carry.

Seoul Village 2020
Welcome to our Korean Errlines! Follow Seoul Village on Facebook and Twitter, follow me on Instagram.

"History is harsh" and other sick jokes

As expected (see "Sweeping History Under The Red Carpet"), Shinzo Abe delivered, under one of his trademark smokescreens, an unapologetic speech to the joint session of the US Congress.

The controversial Japanese PM took no chances ahead of the event:
- press muzzled at home (e.g. "Effort by Japan to Stifle News Media Is Working" by Martin Fackler - NYT 20150426)
- USA bribed with sweeteners (no to AIIB, yes to TPP), and of course the promise to D.C. hawks that the region will be over-militarized for the decades to come (Collective Self Defense)
- public opinion fooled with symbolic visits (ah, the irony of watching a war crime negationist visit a Holocaust museum, a sex slavery denier tour the Lincoln Memorial...)
- ...

So let's listen to his messages.

Video and transcript of Shinzo Abe's speech in US Congress. Needed big font to deliver his fine print revisionism (twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/593598281965441024)

Following his new mantra, Abe repeats that he "will uphold the views expressed by the previous prime ministers", but he never voices them, precisely because they include the closest thing to personal apologies ever uttered by past Japanese leaders.

Typically, where Murayama stated his personal remorse and apology ("my feelings of deep remorse and state my heartfelt apology"*) over 'tremendous damage and suffering' caused to many nations by Japan's 'mistaken national policy', 'colonial rule and aggression', Abe keeps his distances and discards the key words 'apology', 'colonial rule' or 'aggression', and of course 'irrefutable facts of history' (see transcript). Even the 'human trafficking' tested on the way to D.C. disappeared. 

Fundamentally, Abe only refers to standard war casualties and collateral damage that occur in any kind of conflict: "History is harsh", people died on both sides, and Japan has not done anything worse than other belligerents. Again, you couldn't expect formal apologies from a man who devoted his whole life to the negation of war crimes and the destruction of post-war Japan (see Nippon Kaigi agenda). 

Abe can allow himself to get personal for the US victims of WWII ("with deep repentance in my heart"), but always remains distant from past embryos of apologies ("Post-war, we started out on our path bearing in mind feelings of deep remorse over the war") that are now restricted to the paragraph on Asian nations.

Abe's difference in treatment between the US and Asian nations reaches deeper than the need to tailor his speech for the US Congress: Abe clearly poses at the same level as the former (we fought each other, we're now friends, it was a good game, fair play, all is well), and leagues over the latter (the condescending "We must all the more contribute in every respect to the development of Asia. We must spare no effort in working for the peace and prosperity of the region").

In his speech, Abe mentions a couple of people present in the gallery, but of course not LEE Yong-soo halmoni, one of the last survivors of Imperial Japan's sexual slavery system. She came with Mike HONDA, who along with Steve Israel, Bill Pascrell, and Charles Rangell, took yet another stand at the Congress ahead of Abe's visit. GOP lawmakers were M.I.A. except Marco Rubio, who asked Shinzo Abe to cope with the issue... two days before licking his boots in a Wall Street Journal oped**. Some hawks / lobbyists / fundraisers must have reminded him that he could not say whatever he wanted during his presidential campaign.

Speaking of hawks: Shinzo Abe mentioned at least 3 fellow Nippon Kaigi followers in his speech: Yoshitaka Shindo, Fumio Kishida, and Gen Nakatani. The last two worked with John Kerry and Ashton Carter on a framework to push Abe and Nippon Kaigi's key reform, deliciously hyped as "a sweeping one in our post-war history".

If "the darkest night fell upon Japan" on March 11, 2011, history will also remember as a national tragedy the date Abe starts his destruction of post-war Japan by tearing down its peaceful constitution. A national tragedy except of course in the textbooks monitored by this jaded revisionist...

Gladly hiding behind Abe's smokescreen to push their own, more short-sighted agenda, the US clearly don't end up looking like the world's only hyperpower. And even if Abe didn't expose the triumphant body language of Netanyahu on the same soapbox a few weeks earlier, he clearly looks closer to his lifetime dream (Japan's nightmare) than ever.

Yesterday, at the Asan Plenum, Alexis Dudden distributed this Asahi Shimbun cartoon showing the leaders of the trilateral alliance (then LBJ, Park Chung-hee, Eisatu Sako) two days after the June 22, 1965 pact between Japan and Korea. Carrying the diminutive Park on his back, a towering Johnson says 'now I can rest easy, too' while his Asian partners shake hands:

twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/593276051041554432

The day after Shinzo Abe's speech in Congress, I guess it could show the US thanking Japan before leaving: 'thanks for taking care of the region, they need me somewhere else'. As they shake hands, the US and Japan seem to be of the same height, because the latter is standing on Korea's corpse.


Seoul Village 2015
Welcome to our Korean Errlines! Follow Seoul Village on Facebook and Twitter

Add this page to your favorites

* key paragraph in Tomiichi Murayama's 1995 statement: "During a certain period in the not too distant past, Japan, following a mistaken national policy, advanced along the road to war, only to ensnare the Japanese people in a fateful crisis, and, through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations. In the hope that no such mistake be made in the future, I regard, in a spirit of humility, these irrefutable facts of history, and express here once again my feelings of deep remorse and state my heartfelt apology. Allow me also to express my feelings of profound mourning for all victims, both at home and abroad, of that history"

** "Sen. Marco Rubio takes on Japanese prime minister over 'comfort women'" (L.A. Times 20150428) followed by "Asia Needs a Strong U.S.-Japan Alliance" (WSJ 20150430)