Professor John Mark Ramseyer of Harvard Law School has ignited significant controversy by publishing a paper asserting that victims of the Japanese military’s wartime sexual slavery, often referred to as “comfort women,” were voluntary prostitutes. The issue is further compounded by the fact that Ramseyer secured his professorship with funding from Japanese war crime corporations and was even awarded a medal by the Japanese government for his contributions to its public relations efforts.
The Voluntary Agency Network of Korea (VANK) views this as part of a broader and systematic attempt by the Japanese government to leverage the credibility of professors at globally prestigious institutions like Harvard to establish an internationally accepted narrative aligned with Japan’s right-wing historical revisionism.
In response, VANK is launching a global campaign to raise awareness of this issue before Ramseyer’s paper gains wider international traction.
As part of this initiative, VANK plans to distribute digital posters worldwide to inform the international community about the controversy. Additionally, the organization has sent protest letters to the Dean of Harvard Law School and the President of Harvard University. Simultaneously, VANK has launched a petition on the world’s largest petition platform, Change.org, urging Harvard Law School’s leadership to condemn Ramseyer’s historical distortions.
Global Petition:
Harvard Law Professor Defends War Crimes of Sexual Slavery?
🔗 http://maywespeak.com/thesis
Through this petition, VANK raises a critical question: “Is John Mark Ramseyer truly a 21st-century professor at Harvard Law School, or does he more closely resemble a professor from the Imperial University of Japan a century ago?”
VANK also warns that Ramseyer’s paper echoes the rhetoric of Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi-era propaganda minister, in that it serves to justify Japan’s wartime aggression and functions as a mouthpiece for a government seeking to evade responsibility for its war crimes.
Furthermore, VANK expresses grave concerns over the potential damage to the reputation and credibility of Harvard Law School. The organization urges that Ramseyer’s paper should not be exploited by the Japanese government as a tool to deny its history of invasion and aggression. Instead, Harvard Law School must uphold its role as an institution dedicated to justice and historical integrity.
Through this petition, VANK calls on Ramseyer to reflect on his role as a scholar, recognize his complicity in denying Japan’s history of aggression, and voluntarily retract his paper. In particular, VANK is making a formal request to the academic journal International Review of Law and Economics to withdraw the publication of Ramseyer’s paper in light of its historical inaccuracies and ethical implications.