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An article published by J. Mark Ramseyer, the Mitsubishi professor of Japanese legal studies at Harvard Law school, has been criticized not only in South Korea but also in the United States as he described Korean women who were sexually abused by the Japanese military during World War II as willing prostitutes who carefully negotiated the terms of their contracts.
Ramseyer made the contentious claim that the women, sometimes euphemistically referred to as “comfort women,” were volunteers and not “sex slaves,” and argued that there was no coercion from the Japanese government in recruiting the women. Other scholars have said that he did not provide any proof or evidence that can support his claim.