Korean history

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• 5/15/2022
  

  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. 

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• SOURCE: CNN
  4/29/2022
  

  "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. 

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• SOURCE: Harvard Crimson
  2/16/2022
  

  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. 

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• SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
  8/21/2021
  

  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."

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  7/18/2021
  

  ‘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. 

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  2/26/2021
  

  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.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  2/26/2021
  

  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. 

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• SOURCE: The Asia-Pacific Journal
  2/23/2021
  

  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. 

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• SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
  2/16/2021
  

  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.

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• SOURCE: Harvard Crimson
  2/15/2021
  

  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."

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  6/23/2020
  

  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.