Press Release
Feminist Open Letter on Ramseyer
feministsonramseyer@gmail.com
For immediate release
February 16, 2021
[Co-press release] Feminist Open Letter Regarding Harvard Law School Mitsubishi Professor John Mark Ramseyer’s Scholarship on Japanese military “comfort women”
[Feminists on Ramseyer] - Harvard Law School Mitsubishi Professor of Japanese Legal Studies John Mark Ramseyer’s recent publication in the International Review of Law and Economics sparked international controversy by conflating Japanese military “comfort women” with paid free-will prostitution, thus denying sexual enslavement. This article disregards testimonies by survivors across the Asia-Pacific region, research and investigation by scholars over the past three decades, and reports and recommendations by international organizations such as UN and ILO, mirroring arguments made by the Japanese government that evade any responsibility for the grave human rights violations it perpetuated during the Asia-Pacific War.
As such, we have co-signed a feminist open letter that articulates the need to engage critically with the perpetuation of sexual violence, sexism, patriarchy, and colonialism in academic spheres as has been pointed out in recent social movements such as #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter, #RhodesMustFall, and the call for ethnic studies. The open letter challenges academic knowledge that upholds sexist, patriarchal, and colonialist perspectives at the expense of uncovering the deeply entrenched, interlocking systems of oppression. It points out that Ramseyer’s violent argument not only perpetuates egregious violence towards these women and the system’s contemporary implications but also colludes with and validates the Japanese state’s own intentional erasure of this violent history. Arguing that “deconstructing sexual slavery and exploitation of women’s bodies in both the past and present is instrumental in building institutions and societies that respect women’s rights and survivors’ fight for justice,” the open letter challenges his viewpoint for its perpetuation of structural injustices and impunity to sexual violence.
The open letter calls on higher education institutions to 1) strengthen community guidelines on diversity and equity that acknowledge the harms of sexism, colonialism, and racism 2) actively investigate hate speech and behaviors that perpetuate sexist, colonialist, and racist views 3) provide funding and support for campus diversity initiatives that foster critical conversations on historical and present-day structural injustices 4) provide funding and survivor-friendly, trauma-informed resources for survivors of sexual violence and implement programs and measures to end impunity to sexual violence 5) refrain from investing in or receiving funding from companies involved in war crimes.
The statement has been signed by over 1060 feminist scholars, students, alumni, and organizations around the world (United States, Korea, Japan, Philippines, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Canada, etc) as of February 16th, 9pm PST / 6pm EST / 10am PHT / 11am KST.
Sign the statement here: bit.ly/feministsonramseyersign
View signatories here: bit.ly/feministsonramseyerview
[Full statement including notes] bit.ly/feministsonramseyer
Press inquiries: feministsonramseyer@gmail.com
*Organizations who signed the open letter have been asked to join us in the co-press release. Each organization may have revised the press release to best represent their organization.
Co-press releases by organizations who co-signed our letter: