Reviewed Book: Mark Ramseyer, transtated by Nobukatsu Fujioka, Yumiko Yamamoto, Shunichi Fujiki, Yoshiaki Yano and Hiromichi Moteki, Complete Refutation by Prof. Ramseyer
Reviewer: Jason Morgan(Associate Professor, Reitaku University)
Explanation by Hifumi Tomoko (Senior Researcher, International Research Institute of Controversial Histories)
The author Prof. Jason Morgan was born in 1977 in Louisiana, U.S.A., and is now an Associate Professor at the international faculty at Reitaku University. He obtained his Doctorate in Japanese history at the graduate school of the University of Wisconsin in 2016. His field of research ranges widely from Japanese history to history of the Oriental thinking and legal philosophy. He is interested in how history, historical thinking and legal philosophy affect each other through the process of comparing historical and legal awareness in various cultural spheres. In 2023, he published the paper “A Massacre in the Making: Separating Truth from Fiction about Nanking”. The link to the substack post is: https://substack.com/@jasonmmorgan/p-135460250
His book review covered now in this column is about the book Complete Refutation by Prof. Ramseyer, of the Theory of Comfort Women Being Sexual Slaves, written by Professor Ramseyer, edited and translated by Fujioka Nobukatsu and Yamamoto Yumiko, and translated by Fujiki Shunichi, Yano Yoshiaki and Moteki Hiromichi. The five translators of this book are members of the International Research Institute of Controversial Histories, and the translation work was done as part of this institute’s project. We would like to extend our gratitude to Prof. Morgan, who introduced this great book and to the Bulletin of the Historical Awareness Research Committee, “Historical Awareness Research.”
Prof. Morgan states with a precise and keen perspective the historical significance of this book and explains how academic arguments should be made. In addition, Prof. Morgan emphasizes that through the translation of Prof. Ramseyer’s papers into Japanese, Prof. Ramseyer’s clear reasoning will surely be conveyed to the Japanese readers. Then, Prof. Morgan confidently states that the book Complete Refutation by Prof. Ramseyer should be widely read to help understand the present situation of the “historical warfare” still going on today. And he concludes his review by saying that he hopes to have many other works by Prof. Ramseyer translated into such precise and easy to read Japanese and published in near future.
Review by Jason Morgan
Articled in "Historical Awareness Research" Vol.14, 2024by Historical Awareness Research Committee
The name of Professor J. Mark Ramseyer of Harvard Law School has now become well known in Japan. It all started with a mere eight-paged paper Professor Ramseyer posted on the website of the academic journal on law and economics, International Review of Law and Economics in December 2020. The paper was titled “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War.” In his paper, the professor contested the characterization of comfort women as sexual slaves, suggesting instead that their situation resembled an extension of a business model similar to “indentured servitude.” He employed economic “game theory” to support his analysis. Nothing happened immediately after the post.
Then, anti-Ramseyer campaign started when the news opinion website “Japan Forward” introduced the summary of the professor’s paper in English on January 12, 2021, and on the 28th of the same month, the Japanese newspaper The Sankei Shimbun published an explanation and a summary by Professor Fukui Yoshitaka at Aoyama Gakuin University.[i] First, in South Korea and then in the United States and other countries of the English-speaking sphere and Japan, a wave of hatred against Professor Ramseyer erupted and grew violently, materializing in various “accusations.”
“History revisionist,” “history denier,” “the same as the Holocaust deniers,” “white supremacist” and “racial discriminator,” etc. --all kinds of thinkable slanders and groundless accusations were made against Professor Ramseyer, demanding his apology for what he wrote and the withdrawal of his paper. A barrage of blackmail and threats poured against Professor Ramseyer, and he even received a death threat. The most shocking fact about the incidents was that those who led the anti-Ramseyer campaign and violently instigated the hate-movement were so-called “scholars” employed at universities in South Korea, Japan, the United States, Australia and Singapore. Thus, Professor Ramseyer came to be known in Japan through his study on comfort women and the chaotic confusion over that study.
Though many Japanese may know the name of Professor Ramseyer and may be aware that he has been studying the comfort women issue, only a few can describe correctly his ideas. Under such circumstances, the book Complete Refutation by Prof. Ramseyer came along. The book is a collection of Professor Ramseyer’s papers which prove theoretically that comfort women played a part in the well-regulated prostitution business, based on the licensed private prostitution system as a legal business. Those women voluntarily entered into “indentured labor contracts” on the premise of the payment of high wages, which proved that there was no systematic or forced abduction of women on the part of the Japanese Government or military. The book was translated into Japanese. The editing and translation work was done by the Deputy Chairman of the Japan Society for History Textbook Reform Mr. Fujioka Nobukatsu and four other persons participated in the work. The translated book includes three papers written by Professor Ramseyer as the result of his research over the past thirty plus years and the fourth paper was rebuttal of his critics. The first paper was published in 1991 under the title “Indentured Prostitution in Imperial Japan: Credible Commitments in the Commercial Sex Industry”.[ii]
The second paper was “Comfort Women and the Professors.” The third paper was “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War”, which instantly made Professor Ramseyer famous. The fourth paper was “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War: A Response to my critics.”[iii]
One thing to regret is that the book does not include the paper “The Comfort Women Issue and the North Korean Connection,”[iv] co-authored by Professor Ramseyer and Professor Arima Tetsuo at Waseda University. In addition, the four papers were written over a period of more than thirty years and since they include refutation, there are some duplicate parts. But let me make it clear that duplications do not matter when it comes to the true value of Professor Ramseyer’s study. It is truly a blessing that Professor Ramseyer’s monumental study, though only part of it, was translated into Japanese for the first time for Japanese readers to appreciate.
Professor Ramseyer’s study is not just about comfort women. Together with Professor John Owen Haley, a predecessor of Professor Ramseyer in the field of study on history of the Japanese legal system by European and American scholars, Professor Ramseyer is known to everyone and has devoted his scholarly career to understanding the Japanese society and its legal system and history of legal economics, using the principles of the Chicago School of economics which applies the method of micro economics not only to economic issues but also to various other issues present in the society. I would like to urge those who become interested in Professor Ramseyer’s studies through the book Complete Refutation by Prof. Ramseyer to read other papers written by the Professor, who is an expert on the Japanese legal and economic history.
In his 2020 paper “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War,” Professor Ramseyer argued – using game theory method associated with the Chicago School of economics – that comfort women worked under commercial contracts within a licensed prostitution system. The paper, unfortunately, provoked significant backlash and threats. Game theory, in simple terms, is a framework used to model strategic decision-making among multiple actors, each seeking to maximize their own benefit. Professor Ramseyer applies the “game theory” concept of “credible commitments” to the relationship between comfort station owners and the women who worked there. According his analysis, owners sought to secure profit by establishing trust with the women. While the women, in turn, could increase their own expected payment by cooperating within the contractual framework; in this model, both parties are seen as pursuing mutually beneficial self-interest. Ramseyer thus argues, using microeconomic reasoning, that comfort women – or their families – chose participation in the licensed prostitution system as strategy to improve their lives within a limited set of option.
As clearly seen in the first and second papers in Complete Refutation by Prof. Ramseyer, “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War” is a result of studies in which Professor Ramseyer has long been engaged that prove the effective combination of the contract system of comfort women and its rationality on one hand and the “game theory” in microeconomics on the other. His studies do not discuss ethical issues concerning prostitution nor do they deny the existence of comfort women. I cannot help wondering why then it caused such fuss as to induce the violent anti-Ramseyer campaign.
Among Professor Ramseyer’s critics, some argue loudly, “There were no actual contracts exchanged between the comfort women and their employers, therefore Ramseyer is a fraud!” However, if you read his paper, it clearly indicates what was written in the contracts, because although he did not verify the “real” contract, he obtained many pieces of evidence from related sources of that time.
This means that among his critics there are those who did not read Professor Ramseyer’s papers or did not understand them. These people should not be allowed to criticize the professor’s papers or slander his personality.
Beside the professor’s four papers, the “Prologue: The fuss over the Ramseyer papers and the background: On the publication of the Japanese-versioned collection of my papers” is also worth reading. At the time when Professor Ramseyer was not only plagued by harassment but was also intimidated by death threats, he frequently contacted me about the situation. Hearing and witnessing the shameless conduct of the self-proclaimed “scholars,” I re-recognized the poor level of learning and civil consciousness of American universities and researchers. Professor Ramseyer had to endure long and merciless harassment since he published “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War,” but unlike many other scholars, he did not apologize neither did he admit non-existent fault and he did not withdraw his papers which he believes to be correct. It was Ramseyer’s pride as a scholar. I heartily admire his undaunted scholar’s spirit.
At the time when he was exposed to severe attacks and threats, there was no room for laughing and we were totally at a loss about how to cope with the dire situation. Thinking back, after the publication of the book Complete Refutation by Prof. Ramseyer, we realize how comical the behavior of the “scholars” in the English-speaking sphere in the United States and elsewhere was. What is interesting here is that “scholars’” words and deeds and their unquestionable belief that they are right appear several times more ridiculous when they are translated into Japanese than in the original English texts. In fact, when I was reading the Prologue, “the fuss over Ramseyer’s papers and the background,” I could not help but laugh aloud several times. Complete Refutation by Prof. Ramseyer will play a great role in helping readers understand the moral depravity of many scholars in the English-speaking sphere as scholars and humans.
I am very happy that through the publication of Complete Refutation by Prof. Ramseyer, three other papers besides “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War” were translated into Japanese and became easily accessible to the Japanese people. I have read all the papers included in the book in English. The translation team led by Mr. Fujioka did an excellent job, concisely grasping Professor Ramseyer’s intention and making the book a wonderful translation work. Thanks to their efforts, I am perfectly sure that Professor Ramseyer’s clear logic using the legal economic analysis will be understood by the Japanese readers. I pay my heart-felt respect to the translation and editing team.
To understand the present situation of the “historical controversial warfare” still being fought, the book Complete Refutation by Prof. Ramseyer should be widely read. Although there may be some misspelling in the references in the note, what matters is that the results of the studies on Japanese legal history and economic system have been translated into precise and dutiful Japanese.
Lastly, let me conclude my review by stating my wish. My wish is that Professor Ramseyer’s many other studies will be translated into precise and easy-to-read Japanese and published like this book. Professor Ramseyer is well-known in Japan for his studies related to comfort women. And yet, as I mentioned in the beginning, his studies cover a vast array of topics and are very profound. From the bottom of my heart, I’m looking forward to the day when my wish comes true.
(Translated and edited by Fujioka Nobukatsu and Yamamoto Yumiko, translated by Fujiki Shunichi, Yano Yoshiaki and Moteki Hiromichi, [v] Heart Publisher, 2023, 1980 yen.)
[i] “Professor Ramseyer refutes the criticism, No evidence of forced abduction” The Sankei Newspaper, dated January 14, 2021 https://www.sankei.com/article/20220114-TGQAHT3XQZNLFEUAR7GJDHN62U/ (pay article)
[ii] J. Mark Ramseyer, “Indentured Prostitution in Imperial Japan: Credible Commitments in the Commercial Sex Industry,” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, vol.7, No.1 (Spring, 1991), pp89-116 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/764879) was translated into Japanese in 1993. See Sono Hiroo “Geisha Contract—Credible Commitments in the Commercial Sex Industry,” “Hokudai Collection of Papers on Study of Law, Hokkaido University, Law Department, October 25, 1993 https://eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2115/15533/d1/44%283%29_p206-160.pdf
See p.109 of the volume under review for reference to the same translation.
[iii] In January 2024, several papers related to the comfort women issue written by Professor Ramseyer were translated into the Korean language and published in one volume, though contents are somewhat different.
[iv] “The comfort women issue and the North Korean connection,” co-authored by Professor Arima Tetsuo at Waseda University and Professor Mark Ramseyer at Graduate School, Harvard University and posted on “Social Science Research Network (SSRN) (digital academic magazine) on August 17, 2022. (The original text is written in English.)