A Harvard University professor has ignited an international uproar and faces mounting scrutiny for alleging that Korean women who were kept as sex slaves in wartime Japan had actually chosen to work as prostitutes. Mark Ramseyer rejected a wide body of research finding that Japan’s so-called comfort women were forced to work at military brothels during World War II. Decades of research has explored the abuses inflicted on comfort women from Korea and other nations previously occupied by Japan. AdvertisementHundreds of scholars have signed letters condemning Ramseyer’s article, which united North and South Korea in sparking outrage. But the claims about enslaved Korean comfort women are historically untrue.”AdvertisementOpponents counter that many of the women were so young they would have been unable to consent to sex even if there was evidence of contracts.

Source: Los Angeles Times March 08, 2021 07:41 UTC