Read the Endnotes! Comfort Women Paper was Based on Wealth of Historical Facts.(3)
Archival research specialist Tetsuo Arima says the critics need to comprehend the source documents and set aside their political motives, before dismissing Harvard law professor Ramseyer’s thesis.
This article was first published in Japanese on April 24, 2022, by Daily Shincho.
Most readers will know by now that Harvard Law School professor J. Mark Ramseyer’s 2020 paper “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War,” on the subject of the comfort women, was subjected to a torrent of criticism by the South Korean media and by South Korean and Korean American academics.
Waseda University professor Tetsuo Arima, one of the leading experts specializing in research in official documents, has written several accounts for the Daily Shincho, analyzing the attacks on Professor Ramseyer and his comfort women paper.
For this, Professor Arima, too, has been subjected to criticism from overseas. Some critics question his use of source documents.
In this feature essay, Professor Arima responds to one of his critics.
Professor Arima’s article/commentary was originally appeared in Japanese on April 24, 2022, by Daily Shincho.
We would like to share Professor Arima’s insights and analysis, developed in English via The Japan Forward, dated July 2 and July 3, 2022.
(3) https://youtu.be/XeGEJ3q-5n8
(2) https://youtu.be/tTjfKp6OW1k
(1) https://youtu.be/BN0xwxQcOsU
