Lee Yong-soo, a surviving âcomfort womanâ and activist, former United States Rep. Michael M. âMikeâ Honda (D-Calif.), and other advocates for comfort women spoke at a virtual roundtable hosted by Harvard Law students Tuesday evening aimed at âdebunking denialismâ on the issue.
With more than 500 attendees, the webinar, which was hosted by the Harvard Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, highlighted activism around recognizing and reparating comfort women, a term for sex slaves under the Imperial Japanese military before and during World War II.
The APALSA webinar comes after an academic paper by Harvard Law Professor of Japanese Legal Studies J. Mark Ramseyer stoked international controversy in recent weeks. In the paper, set to be printed by an academic journal, Ramseyer goes against the historical consensus by arguing that comfort women were voluntarily contracted to Japanese brothels. Due to mounting outcry at Harvard and beyond, the paperâs print publication has since been delayed by the journal and its contents are under review.