The image captured from the website of the International Review of Law and Economics on Feb. 11, 2021 shows a notice posted by the journal, announcing a pending investigation into concerns over an article by Harvard Japanese legal studies professor Mark Ramseyer that claimed Japan’s wartime sex slavery was based on voluntary prostitution. (Yonhap)
WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — A U.S. journal on Thursday said it has launched an investigation into concerns over an article that claimed Japan’s wartime sexual slavery had actually been voluntary prostitution.
The International Review of Law and Economics posted a notice saying such concerns have been raised and are now being investigated.
“The International Review of Law and Economics is issuing an Expression of Concern to inform readers that concerns have been raised regarding the historical evidence in the article list above,” said the statement.
The journal is currently scheduled to publish the controversial article, titled “Contracting for sex in the Pacific War,” by Mark Ramseyer, Mitsubishi professor of Japanese legal studies at Harvard University.
“These claims are currently being investigated and the International Review of Law and Economics will provide additional information as it becomes available,” it said.
The pending article prompted a public outcry in South Korea and among human rights activists around the globe.
Historians say some 200,000 Asian women, mostly Koreans, were forced to provide sex to Japanese soldiers as “comfort women” during World War II, while dozens of former comfort women have consistently testified that they had either been tricked or coerced into sex slavery.
An association of Korean students at Harvard University has demanded an immediate withdrawal of the paper and an apology from Ramseyer.
“It is a wrong conclusion based on grounds very biased and lacking trustworthiness,” the Harvard Korean Society said of Ramseyer’s paper earlier.
“The issue of comfort women is an international inhumane act, and his academic view which justifies and negates the act is an immoral and shameless view,” it added.
(Yonhap)
