Join the Debate With Comfort Women Scholars

On 18 February 2021, I coauthored an op-ed calling for a more open, reflective discussion of the "comfort women" issue, and specifically for "debating not censuring" Harvard law professor J Mark Ramseyer. The public backlash was severe, with lasting effects on my teaching, research, and career opportunities.

I do not regret publishing the essay. A liberal society, and especially its universities, should expose its citizens to complexity, not one-sided propaganda. What Kookmin University historian Andrei Lankov argues for North Korean defectors applies to all free citizens: 

"Koreans should not be treated with syrupy propaganda and anti-Communist harangues. Instead, they must become accustomed to intellectual differences and arguments. They should read what was written by the Left and Right, zealous antiglobalists and stubborn libertarians alike. They should be exposed to the modern world, with all its complexity and uncertainty."

Partisan activists may binarize the world into virtuous victims and vile oppressors, and de-platform the latter. But understanding complex issues requires critical dialogues with more actors, not less. 

Inviting Diverse Voices

As a co-founder of Heterodox East Asia (a community of Heterodox Academy), we invite a variety of informed voices to dialogue with students and scholars on sensitive issues. We include, for instance: 

• academic freedom in Hong Kong and among Chinese citizens; 
• gay Christian teachers in South Korea; 
• South Korea's National Security Law; 
• engaging North Korea; 
• (Post) Affirmative Action and Asian-Americans: the continuing role of race in US college admissions; and 
• the comfort women history wars.  

Critical discussion is especially important when activists advance various, sometimes unproven, claims about the sufferings of genuinely victimized groups, such as that the North Korean regime tortures Christian prisoners by pouring molten iron or that the Chinese Communist regime mass harvests the organs of Falun Gong practitioners. Credibly distinguishing between corroborated and non-corroborated claims is also essential for genuine understanding of, and effective advocacy for, victimized groups.

Thus far, Western media have actively interrogated the claims of victims' advocates favored by the political right (such as North Korean defectors). However, they have done less so for that of the political left (Korean comfort women). 

Such interrogation is essential for mutual understanding as well as consensus between East Asia's two leading democracies. University of Chicago historian Bruce Cumings writes, "The way to bridge social and ideological conflict is to let the truth come out, let people debate the truth in a truly democratic manner, and thus use history to pursue reconciliation with those who think differently than you do." 

Inclusive Exchange of Views and Analysis

Our May 31 and June 14 public webinars shall host a range of scholarly viewpoints to interrogate the many academic and legal controversies related to Korean comfort women of the Japanese military. 

We invite both strong critics of the Japanese government's official stance and of Mark Ramseyer, including Alexis Dudden (University of Connecticut) and Sheng-mei Ma (Michigan State). Likewise, we encourage the participation of supporters (eg, Chizuko Allen, University of Hawaii). 

Potential topics include: 

• the legal prosecution of dissenting professors in South Korea and right-wing harassment of comfort women supporters in Japan; 
• best estimates for the number of Korean comfort women; 
• whether any woman from Korea and Taiwan was directly abducted by the Japanese military or by corrupt officials and private brokers pretending to be soldiers; 
• did women receive larger advance payments during wartime and could leave after their contracts expired; 
• whether some members of the Korean Council pressured and manipulated women's testimonies; 
• to what extent the military hierarchy was aware of and complicit in the deceptive practices of private brokers and corrupt officials; 
• the presence of "intimate interactions" between comfort women and soldiers; and 
• how the Japanese comfort women system compared to the brothel system for US soldiers in South Korea and South Korean soldiers during the Vietnam War.

Rare Opportunity to Engage the Scholars

These topics are mostly addressed in Ramseyer and Jason Morgan's provocative, new book, The Comfort Women Hoax (2014). The upcoming public forums further offer a rare opportunity for anybody to dialogue with the authors or their critics.

One or more scholars may feel pressured to drop out, or comment anonymously, to avoid public association with "far-right denialists." We certainly welcome a wide range of participants to participate openly and civilly, for conservatives to interrogate progressive scholars like Dudden, and for progressives to do the same for Ramseyer and Morgan.

We invite everybody to register and speak at our two forums. [Register here] Please share your thoughts (pre- or post) in the public comments doc.

 RELATED:

• BOOK REVIEW | A Review of 'The Comfort Women Hoax': Seeking Truth in the Debate
• Lew Seok-choon Secures Crucial Victory for Academic Freedom
• The Comfort Women: South Korea's Task of Separating Fact from Fiction
• Hong Kong and the Challenge to Supporting Academic Freedom
  
  

Author: Dr Joseph Yi

Joseph Yi (PhD, University of Chicago) is an associate professor of political science at Hanyang University. He can be contacted via email: joyichicago@yahoo.com