CONTRACTING FOR SEX IN THE PACIFIC WAR:
A RESPONSE TO MY CRITICS
J. Mark Ramseyer
01/2022

PDF版ダウンロード　※新しいタブに表示されます
http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/olin_center/papers/pdf/Ramseyer_1075.pdf

【　Abstract　】
In “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War,” International Review of Law & Economics (IRLE) (2020), I explored the economic logic behind the contracts made by Japanese and Korean prostitutes with the brothels at which they worked. Among the terms of the contracts that I tried to explain were the way in which they coupled a large initial payment with a maximum period of service. I sought to interpret these and other contractual terms as addressing classic economic dilemmas.

My article provoked massive criticism. However, virtually none of the critics attacked my economic analysis of the contracts. Indeed, most of my critics did not even mention my analysis of the contractual terms — even though that was the focus of my article and was the basis for its publication in the IRLE.

Instead, some critics complained that I did not examine actual prostitution contracts. Readers of my actual article will know that I never claimed to have a data set of actual contracts. To the best of my knowledge, very few actual contracts survived the war. What I did rely upon—as I make clear in my article—is information about the prostitution contracts from government documents, wartime memoirs, newspaper advertisements, a summary of a comfort station accountant’s diary, and so forth.

Other critics compiled a long list of asserted mistakes concerning the accuracy, relevance, and interpretation of citations in my article. I respond to these claims below. Most of them are not mistakes at all. A small number of them are mistakes, but they do not affect my analysis of the contract terms.

Most critics emphasized the immorality of the comfort women system. In particular, some critics claim that I ignored the fact that some women were deceived into becoming comfort women and were cheated and otherwise mistreated by owners of the comfort station brothels. Readers of my actual article will recall that I mention these points in my article.

Most of the critics insist that large numbers of Korean women were forcibly conscripted (at gunpoint or hauled away against their will) by the Japanese army in Korea. My IRLE article does not address this issue, but I discuss it in this response. The claim is false: Korean women were not programmatically and forcibly conscripted by Japanese soldiers in Korea into comfort station work. There is no contemporaneous documentary evidence of forcible conscription. Neither is there any evidence for over 35 years after the war ended in 1945. Only in the late 1980s did some Korean women begin to claim that they had been forcibly conscripted.

Crucially, in 1983 a Japanese writer named Seiji Yoshida wrote a best-selling book claiming that he and a posse of soldiers had dragooned Korean women at bayonet point and raped them, before sending them off to serve as sexual slaves. A famous 1996 UN report on the conscription of Korean women relied on this book, and it is in the wake of the book that a small number of Korean women began claiming that they had been conscripted even though some of them had earlier given different accounts. Before he died, Yoshida admitted that he had fabricated the entire book. Yoshida’s fabrication attracted substantial attention in Asia and abroad, including in the New York Times.

The comfort women dispute began with Yoshida’s fraud. Yet this astonishing and crucial fabrication is not mentioned by any of my critics even though many of them are Japan or Korea experts and are surely aware of it.

【　Table of Contents　】
On Studying Wartime Prostitution (including a response to Gordon-Eckert and Suk-Gersen)
Appendix I: A Response to Stanley, et al.
Appendix II: A Response to Yoshimi
Appendix III: Information about Comfort Women Contracts
Bibliography

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＜参考＞

ハーバード大ラムザイヤー教授 論文 1991年「芸娼妓契約－性産業における信じられるコミットメント」、2021年「太平洋戦争における性サービスの契約」
http://nadesiko-action.org/?p=15670

萩生田文科大臣、ラムザイヤー教授論文について国会で答弁「自発的かつ自由な研究活動を尊重すべき」
http://nadesiko-action.org/?p=15772

4.24【緊急シンポジウム】ラムザイヤー論文をめぐる国際歴史論争 (永田町/星稜会館）
http://nadesiko-action.org/?p=15792

ラムザイヤー教授からのメッセージ（日本語文字起こしと韓国語訳）
http://nadesiko-action.org/?p=15867

EMERGENCY SYMPOSIUM ON THE INTERNATIONAL HISTORICAL CONTROVERSY OVER PROFESSOR RAMSEYER’S ARTICLE

SEIRYO KAIKAN

APRIL 24, 2021

Video Message from John Mark Ramseyer, Professor of Japanese Legal Studies at Harvard Law School

First of all, I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks to the International Research Institute of Controversial 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 distinguished scholars 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 is a 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, at all 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 even a 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 of the 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 of works produced by members of American humanities circles was suffused with a strong anti-Japanese 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 academic community. I was mistaken.

I was astonished at the vehemence of the opposition to my article. I suspected that there would be some resistance, but I didn’t imagine such violent reactions.

I believe that my critics are determined to prevent any argument that disagrees with their convictions (that the Japanese abducted women and forced them to serve as prostitutes, and that the 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 for the concept of academic freedom, they act like would-be scholar-assassins, and seem to take pride in 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 the student 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 in kindergarten.

“Don’t run with scissors in your hand” is one of those things I learned. I was also taught, “Tell the truth. 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 Research Institute 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.

2021年6月８日、米国ロードアイランド州上院が日本軍慰安婦性奴隷・ラムザイヤー論文非難の決議を採択しました。

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原文：http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/PublicLaws/law21/res21/res21301.htm

[ 意訳 ]
2021年6月８日採択

上院決議
「日本帝国陸軍が、アジアと太平洋諸島を占領した１９３０年代から終戦までの間に多くの女性、特に韓国人女性、を強制的に性奴隷にしたことを認める」

提案者　マイケル・J・マッカーフリー
提案日　2021年6月8日

1930年代から第二次世界大戦の終戦まで、日本政府は性奴隷にする目的で若い女性たちを公的に強制的に集めさせた。これらの女性は、売春婦の婉曲的表現で「慰安婦」として知られており、

歴史家の推計によると、意に反して慰安婦にさせられた女性の数は５万から２０万人である。これらの女性は日本の統制下にあったアジア全域とアジア・太平洋諸島、特に一番多くが韓国、他に中国、フィリピン、ビルマ、タイ、ベトナムなどの女性であり、

1921年、日本政府は「婦人及児童ノ売買禁止ニ関スル国際条約」に署名しており、

1993年に日本政府は「河野談話」を発表して慰安婦の確保に強制性があったことを認めて謝罪し、2015年に安倍首相は「慰安婦として数多の苦痛を経験され，心身にわたり癒しがたい傷を負われた全ての方々に対し，心からおわびと反省の気持ち」を表明し、

1930年代から第二次世界大戦終戦までの間に日本帝国陸軍によって何千もの女性が強制的に性奴隷にされたという揺るぎない歴史的事実があるのにも関わらず、残念なことに謝った情報や否定が続いている。このような情報が粗末で不適切な論文を書いたのが、ハーバード法学者J・マーク・ラムザイヤー教授で、彼は本質的には慰安婦は自主的で合意に基づいた売春婦であるとした。この論文対して直ぐに反応が起こり、多くの学者から信頼できない論文とされ、数々の活動家、政治家、学生らからも非難された。

従って、

ロードアイランド州上院はここに、日本帝国陸軍がアジアと太平洋諸島を占領した１９３０年代から終戦までの間に多くの女性、特に韓国人女性、を強制的に性奴隷にしたを認めると決議し、

州務長官は本決議の写しをジョセフ・バイデン大統領、ロードアイランド州ダニエル・マーキー知事、Hong’s World Class テコンドー・センターのグランドマスターJin Sup Hong氏に送ることを決議する。

——————————————————
[ 原文 ]

R 301
2021 — S 0950
Enacted 06/08/2021

Introduced By: Senator Michael J. McCaffrey
Date Introduced: June 08, 2021

RECOGNIZING THAT THE JAPANESE IMPERIAL ARMED FORCES COERCED MANY WOMEN, ESPECIALLY KOREAN WOMEN, INTO SEXUAL SLAVERY DURING ITS OCCUPATION OF MOST OF ASIA AND MANY PACIFIC ISLANDS FROM THE 1930S TO THE END OF WORLD WAR II

WHEREAS, From the 1930s to the end of the Second World War, the Government of Japan officially commissioned and coerced the acquisition of young women for the purpose of sexual servitude. These women became known as “comfort women,” a euphemism for prostitutes; and

WHEREAS, It is estimated by historians that anywhere from 50,000 to 200,000 women were involved against their will as “comfort women.” These women came from throughout Asia and the Asian-Pacific Islands under Japanese control, including most particularly Korea, as well as China, Philippines, Burma (Myanamar), Thailand, Vietnam and elsewhere; and

WHEREAS, In 1921, the Government of Japan signed the International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children; and

WHEREAS, In 1993 the Japanese Government issued the “Kono Statement” in which it admitted that coercion was involved in the seizing of the “comfort women” and apologized for those actions, and in 2015, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe “…expressed his most sincere apologies and remorse to all the women and acknowledged that they had undergone immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women”; and

WHEREAS, Unfortunately, misinformation and denial continues to conflict with the　overwhelming historical consensus and evidence that thousands of women were forced to serve as sexual slaves by the Japanese Imperial Army from the 1930s to the end of World War II. One such ill-informed and inaccurate article was recently written by Harvard Law Professor J. Mark Ramseyer, who essentially argued that the “comfort women” were independent and consenting prostitutes. The response was immediate and the article was resoundingly discredited by most scholars and strenuously objected to by numerous activists, political leaders and students; now, therefore be it

RESOLVED, That this Senate of the State of Rhode Island hereby recognizes that the Japanese Imperial Army coerced many women, especially Korean women, into sexual slavery
during its occupation of most of Asia and many Pacific Islands from the 1930s to the end of World War II; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to the Honorable President of the United States, Joseph Biden, the Honorable Governor of the State of Rhode Island, Daniel McKee, and Mr. Jin Sup Hong, Grand Master, Hong’s World Class Taekwondo Center.

========
LC002984
========

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今回の決議は、写しの送り先になっているHong’s World Class テコンドー・センターのJin Sup Hong氏が働きかけたものと思われます。

また、韓国ニュースからすると

ロードアイランド州韓人会　Korean American Association of Rhode Island　로드아일랜드 한인회

が関係しているようです。

この団体は2016年5月26日に採択された「8月15日を韓国の日として記念する」下院決議にも働きかけ、決議文にも記されている団体です。

H O U S E 　R E S O L U T I O N
CELEBRATING AUGUST 15, 2016, AS “KOREA DAY” IN THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

議員にとっては内容の真偽は関係なし。地元の韓国系有力者、団体の要望に応えて議員が動いて採択された決議でしょう。地元に根を張った韓国系の活動の結果です。

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＜　韓国　ニュース　＞

korean daily　2021/06/13
美 로드아일랜드주 상원, 위안부 왜곡 램지어 규탄 결의안 통과
米ロードアイランド州上院、慰安婦歪曲ラムザイヤ糾弾決議案通過
http://www.koreadaily.com/news/read.asp?art_id=9443216

米ペンシルバニア州のフィラデルフィアで慰安婦像設置計画があります。

現地の韓国系団体 Statue of Peace Committee of Korean American Association of Greater Philadelphiaが働き掛けています。

2021年2月10日のフィラデルフィア芸術委員会（the Philadelphia Art Commission）にてその計画がプレセンテーションされ、計画を進めることが承認されました。

プレセンテーションした計画書はこちら

議題　Art Commission Agenda
Presentations for Concept Review
3. 22-21
Statue of Peace
800 S Front Street
Review Type: Public art proposal
Project Details: Statue to commemorate the history of Comfort Women
Submitted by: Office of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy

会議の録画を見ている限り、委員の方々はこの像が政治的な問題になっていることを全く知らないように見受けられます。

韓国系団体はこれから資金集めに力を入れていくでしょう。

フィラデルフィア市議会は、２月２５日にハーバード大学ラムザイヤー教授の論文を非難する決議が提案され（議事録４ページ黄色マーカー部分）、３月４日議会で承認していました。

これも像設置に向けての活動の一つでしょう。

像の設置が決まったわけではありませんが、計画段階で阻止しなくてはなりません。

一番効果があるのは現地の方が声を挙げることです。

フィラデルフィア芸術委員会への意見送り先はこちらです。

the Philadelphia Art Commission
1515 Arch St.
13th floor
Philadelphia, PA 19102

Email： artcommission@phila.gov
Phone:(215) 683-2095
TTY: (215) 683-0286

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慰安婦像設置計画書から

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＜関連ニュース＞
産経　2021.3.9
韓国系団体　米フィラデルフィアで「慰安像公園」を計画
https://www.sankei.com/smp/world/news/210309/wor2103090009-s1.html

NoCutNews　2021-03-03
[단독]’소녀상 공원’, 세계최초 미국에 조성된다
https://www.nocutnews.co.kr/news/5509088?page=2

中華系団体慰安婦正義連盟（CWJC）が中心となり、2017年9月に慰安婦像が建ったサンフランシスコ。
その後も慰安婦関連の様々な動きが活発です。
この春のサンフランシスコとその周辺の「慰安婦問題」最新情報をお伝えします。

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◆　慰安婦教育　高校の先生用　手引書　作成　配布

サンフランシスコに慰安婦像を立てた慰安婦正義連盟（CWJC）と、グレンデールに慰安婦を立てた韓国系米国人加州フォーラム（KAFC）が慰安婦について教育するための高校の先生用の手引書を作成。

3月15-17日にサンフランシスコの南方約75kmサンホゼで行われたカリフォルニア社会科大会（ California Council for the Social Studies Conference）で配布しました。この大会には６００名の高校教師、教育関係者たちが参加しました。

手引書はこちらからダウンロードできます。
CURRICULUM and RESOURCES for “Comfort Women” EDUCATION (For High School)

＜参考＞

NBCニュース「教師用慰安婦ガイド　カルフォルニア州で配布」
New teacher’s guide on ‘comfort women’ to be distributed across California schools

カルフォルニア州の学校数と生徒数　 2017–18
https://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sd/cb/ceffingertipfacts.asp

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◆　2019年3月12日ミルブレー市（City of Millbrae)「慰安婦被害者を記憶し、名誉をたたえる　宣言」

サンフランシスコから南に約24Kｍにあるミルブレー市議会（The Millbrae City Council)の3月12日の市議会で、「Proclamation to Remember and Honor the “comfort women” victims　慰安婦被害者を記憶し、名誉をたたえる　宣言」が採択されました。慰安婦正義連盟CWJCと 韓国系団体Jin Duck & Kyung sik Kim Foundationの主導です。

同市のFBでは「第二次世界大戦中にアジアの13か国、中国、韓国、フィリピン、ビルマ、インドネシア、マレーシア、ベトナム、東チモール、台湾、シンガポール、カンボジア、ラオス、沖縄、の女性と少女が日本軍慰安婦制度の下で売買・監禁され、性奴隷にさせられ、半数以上は亡くなった。」と説明しています。

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◆　サンフランシスコ慰安婦像製作者がアートイベント開催

サンフランシスコ南方約180kmほどの観光地モントレーにて、サンフランシスコ慰安婦像の製作者が3月29日までInstallation to Inspirationというアート・イベントを開催しました。

Monterey County Weekly Mar 21, 2019
A brief art show by sculptor Steven Whyte looks back on his biggest works

記事には
「慰安婦とは第二次世界大戦前と大戦中に日本陸軍に拉致され性奴隷にされた韓国、中国、フィリピンの婦女子の婉曲的な表現です。国連によると慰安婦の9割が病気、けが、自殺などで亡くなったとされていますが、日本政府関係者はその証拠を破棄し、蔑ろにしてきました。」と書かれています。
“Comfort women” is a euphemism for Korean, Chinese and Filipino women and girls who were abducted and forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Army before and during World War II. The United Nations estimates that 90 percent of the women died from disease, injury or suicide, and Japanese officials destroyed evidence and have downplayed it.

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◆　「ユネスコ世界の記憶」に登録運動

慰安婦正義連盟（CWJC）と韓国系米国人加州フォーラム（KAFC）が中心となって「慰安は性奴隷」と主張する申請「慰安婦の声」の登録に向けた運動を開始。署名を集め動画を配信。

動画　ユネスコ世界の記憶に慰安婦の記録を登録することを求めます！

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◆　３月は国際女性月間　慰安婦を称えるサンフランシスコ・シティー・カレッジ

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◆　慰安婦を学ぼう　夏のインターンシップ・プログラム

慰安婦正義連盟（CWJC）が慰安婦について学ぶプログラムを発表。
高校生・大学生などの若者対象に慰安婦について学ばせ、参加者には＄150与えるそうです。

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サンフランシスコは、昔の他国の慰安婦問題より自分たちの街の現実の問題を直視したほうがよいのではないでしょうか。