＜Book Review＞
Harvard Professor Tells Us the Truth about the Comfort Women Issue (Subtitle: Contractingfor Sex in the Pacific War), written by John Mark Ramseyer, translated by Lee Woo-youn andLew Seok-choon, published by Media Watch Company
By Matsuki Kunitoshi, Fellow, International Research Institute of Controversial Histories
The significance of the concurrent publications of Professor Ramseyer’s papers
in Japan and South Korea
The book titled Harvard Professor Ramseyer’s Complete Refutation of Comfort Women Being SexualSlaves (hereinafter, Complete Refutation), published by Heart Publishers in 2013, contains theprofessor’s papers that completely refuted the theory of comfort women being sexual slaves.

It waspublished on December 13, 2023, in Japan and the publication of the same book translated into theKorean language followed on January 3, 2024. The title of the Korean version of the book is Harvard
Professor Tells Us the Truth about the Comfort Women Issue with the subtitle Contracting for Sex inthe Pacific War (hereinafter The Truth about the Comfort Women Issue).
The structure and contents of the book are nearly identical to Complete Refutation and the only
difference is that in the last chapter of the Korean book, a paper entitled “Connection with NorthKorea”, co-authored by Professor Ramseyer and the former Waseda University Professor Arima
Tetsuo is added.
The translation into the Korean language of Prof. Ramseyer’s papers was done by Mr. Lee woo-youn,
researcher at Naksungdae Institute of Economic Research and Mr. Lew Seok-choon of Yonsei
University. Mr. Lee woo-youn is one of the authors of the book Anti-Japanese Ethnicism published inKorea in 2019 and as an economist, he objectively analyzes the development stages of the Korean
economy and highly praises the governance by Japan. From December 2019 onward, he has been
single-handedly conducting regular demonstrations asking for “the removal of the comfort womanstatue, the suspension of the anti-Japan Wednesday meeting and the dissolution of the Korean Council
for Justice and Remembrance (The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery
by Japan). He is truly a man of action.
The other translator, Mr. Lew Seok-choon, is a sociology doctor. He studies the period of Japan’s rule1

of the Korean Peninsula from the perspective of “developmental sociology” while maintaining abalanced and impartial viewpoint. As mentioned later, during his lecture at Yonsei University, he talked
about the “truth about the Japanese rule,” and as a result, he was expelled from his teaching job,
indicted by the anti-Japan forces and is now fighting his case in the court.
The successful publication at this time of The Truth about the Comfort Women Issue owes much toboth translators for their passion and sense of duty. The significance of what Ramseyer papers say inrefutation of the comfort women-related lies being known to the general Korean public is enormous.
The publication of this book will be epoch-making and a significant step toward the complete
resolution of the comfort women issue.
Customarily, for decades, the comfort women issue in South Korea has been treated as a “sacredregion,” which no one is allowed to deny. If one dares to tell the truth about the comfort women who
were in fact prostitutes, one is surely condemned as a traitor for defaming the victimized comfort
women and worse still, is completely ostracized socially.
The author and editor of Anti-Japanese Ethnicism (Miraesa, 2019), Mr. Rhee Young-hoon, professor
emeritus of Seoul University said in 2004, “Military comfort women were professional prostitutes.
What scholar in his right mind would assert that Korean Governor’s Office forcibly mobilized them?”
He was perfectly right in saying so. However, he was asked to resign from the professorship by theKorean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan. In September of thesame year, he was forced to perform a Korean-style humiliating bow-down on the ground to comfort
women.
Ms. Park Yu-ha, professor emeritus of Yonsei University, wrote in her book Comfort Women of theEmpire, published in 2013 (Ppuriwaipari, 2013) the truth that “Japanese soldiers and comfort women
were in comradely relationship.” She was sued by former comfort women for libel at the district court,
she lost one suit after another, and it took her ten years to finally win the verdict of not guilty at theSupreme Court in April 2024.
Moreover, Mr. Lew Seok-choon, one of the translators of the Ramseyer papers, during his lecture on
developmental sociology logically explained that stories regarded as “common sense” in South Korea
such as “40% of farmland was robbed by Japan,” “Rice was exploited,” “Young people were forcibly
taken and forced into slave-like labor,” and “Women were taken to join Volunteer Corps and madecomfort women,” were in fact far from the truth of the Japanese rule. Feeling outrage over his views,

2the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance and former comfort women sued Mr. Lew for libel.
Mr. Lew Seok-choon partially won in the first trial, but both the plaintiffs and the defendant appealed
to the higher court, and the lawsuit is still going on.
When Professor Ramseyer’ paper was posted in the English news site of the Sankei Newspaper onJanuary 12, 2021, the entire South Korea turned into a mayhem. What a disgrace for Korean people
that a Harvard scholar revealed the “truth” of the comfort women issue! Korean public broadcasting
KBS, equivalent to Japan’s NHK, fiercely attacked this revelation, day after day.
The general Korean public, instigated by the fanatic media, without understanding the contents of thepaper written in English, emotionally labelled Professor Ramseyer “Japanese with blue eyes” andbombarded him with all manners of abusive language.
Why, on earth, do such totally unreasonable situations occur in Korea, totally nullifying the freedomof study and damaging human rights?
Essentially, the “history” has been changed arbitrarily in China and Korea every time the governmentchanges and it is impossible there to present the “true history” through examination, investigation andverification. To them, “history” is a means of self-justification, and it is utmost important to make up“history to be” that is convenient to them and push it forward on and on. Let me show a concrete
example.
According to Mr. Matsumoto Koji, former Ministry of Industry and Trade official who once served ascounselor at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, at a seminar held by “Japan-South Korea Joint Study
Society of History Textbook” established in 1991, Professor Yoon Sei-tetsu of Seoul University
reportedly said, “Respecting the position of victimized South Korea, if Japan abandons its insistentand stubborn attitudes sticking to the truth and rewrites the textbook, the issue will be solved.” Mr.
Matsumoto points out that scholars representing South Korea and appearing in front of Japanesemostly have the same way of thinking as the professor.
As made clear so far, in the Korean society, even if a scholar proves something based on historicalfacts, Koreans would never be persuaded into admitting it if it is different from what they think is right.
On top of that, the comfort women issue has been within the “untouchable sacred territory” for long.
They become hysterical at the mere mention of the truth and instantly require bowing-down on theground and apology and resort to lawsuits. Irrationality like the one displayed in the witch hunts of theMiddle Ages has found its own way in Korea.

3How, then, can we overcome such a situation? The only way would be for those telling the truth tocross the national boundaries and act together hand in hand. In this sense, the concurrent publications
and sales of Ramseyer’s books Complete Refutation and The Truth about the Comfort Women Issue inJapan and South Korea were an excellent feat.
Japanese and South Korean scholars on the comfort women issue should continue to deepen the mutualbond and strongly appeal in unison to the peoples of Japan and South Korea and to the world about
revealing the true history. Only then, South Korean common sense will become non-common sense
and a day will surely come when the Koreans will accept the truth about the comfort women issue.
Of course, that will not be an easy way to take, particularly in South Korea, still dominated by antiJapan feelings. The publishers must have felt life-threatening fear when they released all Ramseyer
papers in a book.
However, if we become daunted to face the fearful conflict, we cannot move forward. The publicationof the Truth about the Comfort Women, exposing the true nature of comfort women into daylight canbecome a great breakthrough in solving the comfort women issue.
In concluding this review, I would like to extend my heart-felt respect to Mr. Lee woo-youn and Mr.
Lew Seok-choon, who translated this book and to Media Watch Company, the publisher of this book,for their courage and determination.

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