One Cost of American Military Protection of South Korea? A Brutal Sex Trade

“Our country held hands with the U.S. in an alliance and we knew that its soldiers were here to help us, but that didn’t mean that they could do whatever they wanted to us, did it?”

Can Japan-Korea Relations Resolve Historical Disputes?

The government of South Korea has dropped its demand for Japanese companies to pay victims of forced labor during World War II. Many Koreans have called the concession a national humiliation, and some surviving victims say they won't accept compensation from Korean sources. 

Excerpt: Inside the Gwangju Uprising, a Key Moment for South Korean Democracy

by Gwangju Democratization Movement Commemoration Committee

Government forces sprung into action to violently suppress a pro-democracy protest of students and workers in Gwangju, South Korea on May 18, 1980. 

"Pachinko" Tells History of Korean Women in Mid-20th Century Japan

The Apple+ series, based in a fictionalized narrative of Korean immigration to Japan, concludes with interview footage of eight women, now all more than 90 years old, who lived this history. 

Harvard Law Prof Responds to Critics of His "Comfort Women" Claims, Fails to Squelch Controversy

Two Harvard historians (and several colleagues at other instituitons) say that Mark Ramseyer's defense of his article claiming Korean "comfort women" freely contracted their labor as sex workers serving Japanese soldiers during World War II ignores the substance of their criticism. 

Professor’s ‘Comfort-Women’ Lecture Gets Him Indicted—And Sparks Debate on Academic Freedom

"In an interview, Mr. Lew said he had given that same lecture for more than a decade. Students always pushed back and they debated. But the discourse had never before become public."

‘Historical Distortions’ Test South Korea’s Commitment to Free Speech

The South Korean government's efforts to police discussion of historical events, aimed at suppressing right-wing theories about the country's democratization movement, are an exceptional example of the tension between allowing free debate and the corrosive effects of conspiracy theories. 

Seeking the True Story of the Comfort Women

by Jeannie Suk Gersen

A Harvard Law School professor tried to understand why her colleague made a provocative and contrarian argument that Korean "comfort women" engaged in voluntary sex work. She discovered that recourse to the facts was both straightforward and frustrating.

A Harvard Professor Called Wartime Sex Slaves ‘Prostitutes.’ One Pushed Back

One of the last survivors among the Korean "comfort women" of World War II has denounced a recent paper characterizing the trafficking of women by the Imperial Japanese Army as ordinary prostitution. 

Supplement to Special Issue: Academic Integrity at Stake: The Ramseyer Article

by Alexis Dudden

The Asia-Pacific Journal is publishing a collection of letters in opposition to the controversial article by Harvard Law professor J. Mark Rameseyer which characterized the sexual abuse of Korean women during World War II as freely contracted sex work. 

Harvard Law Prof Rejects Historical Consensus on ‘Comfort Women,' Historians Respond

"There has been so much scholarship produced in the 30 years since the first survivor came forward and it’s almost as if Professor Ramseyer's decision is to just ignore all of the debate -- as if he’s the first person to come into this," said Alexis Dudden, an expert on modern Japanese and Korean history.

Journal Delays Print Publication of Harvard Law Professor’s Controversial ‘Comfort Women’ Article Amid Outcry

"Against the historical consensus, Ramseyer claims in his paper, entitled “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War," that comfort women were not coerced and instead voluntarily entered into contracts with Japanese brothels."

New Film Tells Tale of North Korean Orphans Sent to Europe

The documentary film “Kim Il Sung’s Children” will be released June 25, the 70th anniversary of the Korean War’s start.