On Ramseyer’s Response to the Critics of “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War”

Abstract A controversial paper by Ramseyer, “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War,” which argued that the victims of sexual slavery (“the comfort women”) perpetrated by the Japanese military during World War II were voluntary prostitutes under contract, has raised substantial controversy around the world. This argument has provoked a public outcry, and thousands of scholars, including Nobel laureates, have criticized this paper and denounced it. Ramseyer has subsequently published a response to these critics in a non peer-reviewed, publicly accessible paper series disseminated by the John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics, and Business at Harvard University. His response does not remedy fundamental flaws and inaccuracies in his original paper. This essay discusses these flaws and inaccuracies and also points out the problematic manner in which the author mischaracterizes and omits key materials, misleading readers. The war may have ended several decades ago, but its trauma continues today, exacerbated by the troubling denials of the atrocities.