Comfort Women Issue Focus of Tokyo Symposium With Views from 3 Countries

On July 10 in Tokyo, scholars will gather for an international symposium on the issue of comfort women. Alternating between Tokyo and Seoul, South Korea, this marks the third meeting challenging the conventional narrative surrounding comfort women history. 

Experts from Japan, South Korea, and the United States are expected to convene at Seiryo Kaikan. The event is scheduled from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Moreover, it is open to the general public. No reservation is required, but there is an admission fee of ¥2000 JPY ($12.50 USD).

Scholars from Japan

From Japan, Kunitoshi Matsuki from the International Research Institute of Controversial Histories, Yoshitaka Fukui of Aoyama Gakuin University, and Tsutomu Nishioka from Reitaku University will also speak. 

Matsuki will discuss the contemporary legal quandary surrounding the historical dispute. Meanwhile, Fukui will examine the economic rationale behind the comfort women system.

Nishioka says that the comfort women issue remains an unresolved diplomatic contention. "It's a vexing problem that continues to tarnish Japan's international reputation," he adds. "The issue intertwines elements like North Korean espionage, anti-Japanese media, involvement of the United Nations, and inadequate responses from the Japanese government."

He is scheduled to discuss why some countries have been motivated to spread disinformation about comfort women since the early 1980s.

Scholars from South Korea

Three South Korean experts are slated to speak. Lew Seok-Choon is a former professor at Yonsei University. Kim Byungheon is from the Korean History Textbook Research Institute. Finally, Lee Wooyeon, an economic historian, is also coming. Additionally, Lee Young-hoon will give opening remarks. He is also the author of the bestselling Anti-Japan Tribalism (2018 in Korean, 2019 in Japanese). In addition, he is head of the Syngman Rhee Institute.

Kim, who has attended all three symposiums, hopes this event will deliver a decisive blow to the years of misinformation. "Our academic conferences demonstrate that the Korean Council's claims of forced abduction, sexual slavery, and war crimes against comfort women are unsubstantiated," says Kim.

"There's nothing left for the pro-comfort women activists but to persist in their thirty-year chant of lies," Kim contends. "Their eventual demise is inevitable."

He will additionally address the problems stemming from the 2023 court decision on comfort women and textbook controversy in South Korea.

Lew is scheduled to discuss his ongoing legal case. In 2020, the former professor was indicted for claiming, among other things, that comfort women assumed their roles "half-willingly and half-heartedly." While he was acquitted in January of this year, the prosecution has since appealed the ruling.

Heading into the event, Lew says, "Collaboration among experts from Korea, Japan, and the United States, each conducting independent research, will provide a crucial opportunity to dispel the veil of historical distortions surrounding the comfort women issue."

Lee Wooyeon, a researcher at Naksungdae Institute of Economic Research, will speak on South Korean media coverage of the comfort women issue. 

American Participation

For the first time, the 2024 symposium will feature perspectives from two American scholars.

J Mark Ramseyer is a faculty member at Harvard Law School. He will explore how history is being debated on American college campuses. “Misunderstandings about the history involved are immense and chronic problems,” notes Ramseyer. “The humanities departments in the United States have contributed to the disaster, and I’d like to trace some of these connections.”  

Jason Morgan of Reitaku University will delve into the distortions surrounding the comfort women issue and outline future challenges. "I am honored to have been invited," says Morgan. "This symposium exemplifies how the issue of comfort women ought to have been addressed from the beginning, namely by conscientious scholars from Korea and Japan." 

"I see both Japan and South Korea as victims of a pernicious information war campaign waged largely by North Korea against both countries, using the comfort women as, in effect, human shields for intelligence operations," he points out. 

He plans to talk about how Pyongyang and the Chinese Communist Party are using historical lies to stymie cooperation between Japan and South Korea. 

The two also recently coauthored The Comfort Women Hoax: A Fake Memoir, North Korean Spies, and Hit Squads in the Academic Swamp (Encounter Books, 2023).

For more information about the seminar, please contact i-rich.org or email info@i-rich.org.

RELATED:

• INTERVIEW | On the 'The Comfort Women Hoax' with Mark Ramseyer and Jason Morgan
• BOOK REVIEW | ‘Anti-Japan Tribalism: The Root of the Japan-Korea Crisis’ by Lee Young-hoon and others
• INTERVIEW | Taking On the Comfort Women Narrative with Two Korean Scholars
  
  

Author: Kenji Yoshida