EMERGENCY SYMPOSIUM ON THE INTERNATIONAL HISTORICALCONTROVERSY OVER PROFESSOR RAMSEYER’S ARTICLESEIRYO KAIKANAPRIL 24, 2021
Video Message from John Mark Ramseyer, Professor of Japanese Legal Studies atHarvard Law SchoolFirst of all, I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks to the International Research Institute ofControversial Histories and to Japanese Women for Justice and Peace for holding this symposium.
I am also immensely grateful to the Sankei Shimbun for its generous support of the symposium,and to all of you for taking time out of your busy schedules to be here today.
In all honesty, I find myself at a loss for words. Never have I dreamed that so many distinguishedscholars would assemble to hear me speak. I feel deeply honored.
However, it is quite obvious that I am not at the heart of the problem that must be resolved, nor is
my eight-page article. This is not a simple matter of the harassment of an individual educator. It isa far more deeply rooted problem, and is of the utmost seriousness.
As I see it, the challenge we face is twofold: recounting the events of the past accurately,
specifically, thoroughly, and in an unbiased manner, to the extent possible; and the protection, atall costs, of academic freedom. I hope I will be able to make a contribution, no matter how small,toward the achievement of these objectives. I am willing to make a concerted effort to fulfill evena small role in protecting academic freedom.
I have learned three lessons from this experience.
The first is the importance of relating facts as accurately as possible.
The first step toward resolving the problem that is today’s theme is describing the phenomena ofthe past as accurately as possible. I realize that this seems obvious, but when we write or present
papers or articles, we must do so without bias, to the extent possible. If we are reporting news as
it happens, we must do so without bias, to the extent possible. The same care should, again
obviously, be taken when we are describing past events, but often this does not happen.
Returning to today’s theme, when we are writing about events that took place on the Korean
peninsula in the 1930s, we should describe them accurately.
What prompted me to write the short article in question was my realization that much of what had
been written in English about those events was untrue. The majority of the material I consulted
was marred by Korean anti-Japanese bias. Moreover, I noticed that the overwhelming majority ofworks produced by members of American humanities circles was suffused with a strong antiJapanese bias.

The situation we face today is the result of a great many historians writing history into which they
insert their political preferences. And many write accounts that are consistent with the current
fashion in academia.
The second lesson I learned through this experience is the importance of academic freedom.
We must be able to convey the results of our research even if they are not politically correct.
I had believed that the principles to which I adhere also prevailed in the American academiccommunity. I was mistaken.
I was astonished at the vehemence of the opposition to my article. I suspected that there would besome resistance, but I didn’t imagine such violent reactions.
I believe that my critics are determined to prevent any argument that disagrees with theirconvictions (that the Japanese abducted women and forced them to serve as prostitutes, and thatthe prostitutes were sex slaves) from being published. At the very least, all of them seem to agree
on these two points. I suppose they want all scholars to think alike.
To maintain the illusion that all scholars share the same opinion, my critics have risen up,
determined to force the retraction of my eight-page paper.
The attacks on me have been so offensive that they sometimes seem downright Stalinist.
Unless there is source material in English that contradicts the abduction and sex-slave arguments,
my critics will feel free to pronounce anyone questioning them bedfellows of Holocaust deniers.
I have been disheartened by the behavior of young assistant professors. With total disregard forthe concept of academic freedom, they act like would-be scholar-assassins, and seem to take pridein doing so! The basic principle whereby scholarship progresses when scholars of different
opinions publish or present papers seems to have fallen by the wayside. Among young scholars
we are now seeing a return of the painful “zero-tolerance” atmosphere that surfaced during thestudent movement of the 1960s.
The last lesson I have learned through this experience is the importance of friends.
Without friends I don’t think I could have weathered this storm of attacks. I couldn’t have survived
without the encouragement of my American friends, my Japanese friends.
I relied on my friends, friends who believed in me, friends who comforted me, friends who kept
telling me that I didn’t deserve the names I was called on the internet.
Even if you think your faith in yourself is unshakable, you feel isolated and abandoned when you
are the target of a vicious attack. You start to doubt yourself, and that’s exactly what your critics
want you to do. You start to doubt yourself and ultimately you crumble. That is what happened
during the Cultural Revolution in China. I now know beyond a doubt how important friends are.

Soon after the attacks began, one of my friends told me that times like these are learning
experiences, and I agree. But it pains me that I also learned things I didn’t want to know.
I would like to share an English saying with you today: All I really need to know I learned inkindergarten.
“Don’t run with scissors in your hand” is one of those things I learned. I was also taught, “Tell thetruth. Tell the truth about what is happening now, and what happened in the past. Listen to what
others have to say, even if you don’t want to hear what they’re saying. And never betray a friend.”
Once again, I would like to express my gratitude to the members of the International ResearchInstitute of Controversial Histories and of the Japanese Women for Justice and Peace for holding
this wonderful symposium, to the Sankei Shimbun for its generous support, and to all the
distinguished scholars who interrupted their busy schedules to attend.