​https://mailchi.mp/32c1b5769398/esjf-september-newsletter?e=9408bfc1cd

As a guest lecturer, Sung Sohn discussed “comfort women” history and historical denialism illustrated through Ramseyer’s article at a graduate seminar, Society and Culture in the Contemporary Asia Pacific, at the University of San Francisco. Russ Lowe, ESJF co-founder, shared his experience witnessing the termination of the SF and Osaka sister-city ties.
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Discussion participants’ insightful comments and questions made the seminar thoroughly engaging and moving. 

On the International Day of Democracy, South Korean National Assemblywoman Meehayng Yoon organized an international joint statement. Fifteen legislators and civil society activists from eight countries—South Korea, Japan, the U.S., New Zealand, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, Republic of Uganda—announced the Joint Statement on the Security of Women's Human Rights in Afghanistan, urging the Taliban government to secure women’s human rights in Afghanistan. Sung Sohn from ESJF is one of the activists who participated in this international joint statement.

​For the joint video announcement, click here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Vu2PnjcsYU

Sung Sohn was invited to present at the symposium, After Ramseyer. The symposium focused on educators’ efforts to teach “comfort women” history and issues as well as Korean War history in the U.S. Three South Korean National Assembly members  Jae jung Lee, Jeung Park, Tahney Lee, hosted the symposium. Sung Sohn discussed the history, purpose, and scope of ESJF’s work as well as some distinct differences that exist in the education systems of South Korea and California. Jung Ae Park, a researcher at the North East History Foundation of South Korea, presented a background of the publication of Ramseyer’s article “Contracting for sex in the Pacific War” in the journal International Review of Law and Economics. Ramseyer claimed that women willingly entered into contracts as sex workers at military brothels before and during WWII, rejecting a wide body of research spanning decades, which finds that euphemistically-named “comfort women” were forced to work. Professor Jong-woo Han of Syracuse University shared his work to teach the Korean War accurately in the U.S.

YouTube recording of the symposium (Korean) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLXWFzSYpJg