Responses from my fellow academics concerning my case

Although many academics have protested against unfair treatment of people around the world, not a single one has gone on record about me

I thought that after enough time had passed that some of the academics whom I knew would finally break their silence and speak with me about what was done to be in 2001, and the continued campaign thereafter. It was, after all, one of the worst cases of political persecution of a professor in American history in a prominent university. I was certainly open to an off-the-record discussion. But sadly, the cowardice in American academics, and in most of the fraudulent “truth teller” community, was overwhelming. It was not that the campaign to discuss the truth was unsuccessful. There was no campaign at all.

I wrote a friendly and quite clear letter to around 100 individuals, many fellow academics, to ask for advice concerning the attacks on me at University of Illinois, my fraudulent dismissal for mental illness in 2001, my complete dismissal in 2004, and the specific illegal actions taken against me thereafter. I wanted to start a discussion about what to do next, and I wanted someone to call for an investigation at some level.

I waited until 2016 to send out the letter, that is to say that I waited until 15 years after the incident, to approach them because I had witnessed how terrified my colleagues had been at the time. I received emails back from only a handful of the academics that I wrote to. I guess they count as the brave ones, but they were not that brave.

Here are a few of those letters. I have waited another eight years to make them public. I would like to know what you think.

---

Brian Ruppert was a colleague of mine at University of Illinois who watched the whole campaign against me directly.

Thursday, January 28, 2016

Brian Ruppert

Dear Emanuel, I got your letter. I'll write more later since I've been utterly overwhelmed with work the last several weeks. I'm sorry to see you feel so frustrated after all these years. You certainly seem very successful and happy to me, especially with your books and family and institute, and my sense is that most scholars here have great respect for you. Well, I'm behind (2 courses plus admissions committee meeting today) so I'll have to go but take care, my friend. Brian

February 2, 2016

Dear Emanuel, Sorry not to have responded yet; I've got a snowed in feeling with several thing going at once here. I really appreciated your letter, though then and now I realize there's nothing I can do. The reason is, if you recall, that I was in Japan for most of that seminal period and so I literally have only one memory from the time, which is of being told once I was back that your tenure process wasn't working out and that you were leaving. There's literally nothing substantive, even a casual remembered discussion, about what happened so I'm as (or more?) in the dark as you. And there's certainly no e-mail because it's not something they'd talk about by e-mail and I've never known what happened, to be honest. Now everyone--everyone with the exception of a few on our faculty, like Alexander, Jerry, and Zong-qi--is different, particularly in the administrative positions and the state is coming apart at the seams (state budget impasse). I'm currently working like the devil to try to get the next book out to be made full, so annoyed at myself but that's a long story dealing with having my book project evaluated by someone not even in premodern a few years back, which I took harder than I should have. Then I was head for three years, which was okay but I really hated, somehow survived with Sho's arrival helping me to escape that and get back into my work. So I was super-impressed with how well you've done getting your multiple books out and getting a stable position and institute there. Life is often neither fair nor easy, eh. But I'm just thankful I've got Sho and Junko. As a friend who's come back into contact after years out of touch, I'm just very glad to know you again and was so appreciative of your kindness to Sho. For the sake of my family and me I have to bear down and get full prof-ship, and consider a move if something comes available. Good luck with everything, my friend. I wish you the very very best in everything.

---

Bruce Cummings is a professor of Korean History at University of Chicago who had been quite kind to me early in my career. In this series of exchanges he did everything in his power to avoid corresponding with me about anything of substance, or talking to me or meeting with me. I called the phone number he gave repeatedly to no avail. What makes it feel so rotten to me is that Bruce Cummings was so involved in denouncing human rights violations around the world and standing up for those subject to persecution. I guess some cases do not count.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Emanuel Yi Pastreich <epastreich@asia-institute.org>
Date: Mon, Mar 3, 2014 at 9:58 PM
Subject: AAS
To: bruce cumings <bcumings88@hotmail.com>

Dear Bruce,

I do hope this note finds you well. I am making preparations to attend the AAS meeting in Philadelphia this year. I do hope we can meet up then. Perhaps we can meet the afternoon of Friday, March 28. Do let me know.

Thanks

Emanuel

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Emanuel Yi Pastreich <epastreich@asia-institute.org>
Date: Thu, Mar 6, 2014 at 4:02 PM
Subject: AAS
To: bruce cumings <bcumings88@hotmail.com>

Dear Bruce,

Do let me know what would be a good time to meet at AAS. I look forward to our conversation.

Thanks

Emanuel

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bruce Cumings <bcumings88@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 10:21 PM
Subject: RE: AAS
To: Emanuel Yi Pastreich <epastreich@asia-institute.org>

Dear Emanuel,

I was not sure I would be able to go to the AAS, given a trip to Pakistan. But that just concluded, and I will be there. Perhaps we can meet at some point Saturday, after my morning panel.

Best,

Bruce

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Emanuel Yi Pastreich <epastreich@asia-institute.org>
Date: Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 11:03 PM
Subject: Re: AAS
To: Bruce Cumings <bcumings88@hotmail.com>

Dear Bruce,

I am afraid I must leave Saturday morning. If possible Friday evening would be good. Or we can figure out a way to meet up on your next visit to Asia. In any case, your advice would be much appreciated.

Emanuel

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Emanuel Yi Pastreich <epastreich@asia-institute.org>
Date: Fri, Aug 1, 2014 at 11:53 PM
Subject: Follow up from Emanuel
To: Bruce Cumings <bcumings88@hotmail.com>

Dear Bruce,

I am sorry we did not manage to meet up in person in Philadelphia. Perhaps we can meet on my next visit to the United States.

As I have not received any correspondence from you since this email exchange in March, I wonder whether perhaps you did not receive the hand-written letter that I mailed to you. The letter is of considerable significance to us. If for some reason you did not receive the letter, I would be happy to mail it to you again. Do let me know.

My best from Seoul,

Emanuel

m: Emanuel Yi Pastreich <epastreich@asia-institute.org>
Date: Wed, Apr 15, 2015 at 6:07 AM
Subject: Re: Chicago AAS
To: Bruce Cumings <bcumings88@hotmail.com>

Dear Bruce, I will plan to call you. I am back in Korea and would very much appreciate your advice.

Thanks

Emanuel

On Wed, Mar 25, 2015 at 7:12 PM, Bruce Cumings <bcumings88@hotmail.com> wrote:

your message

---

Dear Emanuel,

Probably it's best to talk by phone. You can call me Tues-Fri at 703-849-0854. If I'm not there, please leave a message and I'll get back to you.

Best,

BC

From: epastreich@asia-institute.org
Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2015 02:01:35 +0900
Subject: Re: Chicago AAS

To: bcumings88@hotmail.com

Dear Bruce,

Thank you for the short note. I do appreciate it.

I would love to see you in Chicago. In fact I think it is very important to have a chance to talk with you to avoid any unnecessary misunderstandings.

However, I must leave Saturday early in the morning to go to Boston and see my mother.

If we could meet on Friday night, even late at night, I can go where ever you are. Otherwise, can I ask if I can try to call you up next week? Just suggest a time. I will know more then.

Thanks,

Emanuel

On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 10:29 PM, Bruce Cumings <bcumings88@hotmail.com> wrote:

AAS

---

Dear Emanuel,

I wasn't sure if I could make it to the AAS this year. I am on leave in Virginia, and am in London right now. I will be able to be at the AAS hotel on Saturday, but Saturday only. I have a pretty full schedule, but if you're around Saturday we can squeeze something in.

Bruce

From: epastreich@asia-institute.org
Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2015 18:57:00 +0900
Subject: Chicago AAS
To: bcumings88@hotmail.com

Dear Bruce,

I am making plans for the trip to AAS Chicago. I wonder whether we might be able to meet up on Thursday, March 26--- just about any time that works for you.

I think it would be best if we can set a bit of time aside to talk in greater detail, but just about any time that will work for you is fine for me.

I do look forward to seeing you then.

Best for the new year's.

Emanuel

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Emanuel Yi Pastreich <epastreich@asia-institute.org>
Date: Thu, Jun 11, 2015 at 12:08 AM
Subject: calling you
To: bruce cumings <bcumings88@hotmail.com>

Dear Bruce,

I tried to call you three times, but could not manage to get you. I wonder if we can perhaps set a time in advance?

Thanks again,

Emanuel

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Emanuel Yi Pastreich <epastreich@asia-institute.org>
Date: Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 8:28 AM
Subject: note from Emanuel
To: bruce cumings <bcumings88@hotmail.com>

Dear Bruce,

I formally give up on trying to reach you by phone or email and I have not received a letter back from you concerning the matters I have raised previously.

This part of the conversation is over, but the judgment of history is ahead and it will be out of my hands.

Best from Seoul,

Emanuel

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bruce Cumings <bcumings88@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, Jul 3, 2015 at 12:29 AM
Subject: RE: note from Emanuel
To: Emanuel Yi Pastreich <epastreich@asia-institute.org>

Dear Emanuel,

I am sorry to have been out of touch. We are moving our entire household this summer, and I have been inundated with things that have to be done.

I would prefer for you to put your concerns in writing, rather than in a phone conversation. Let me know if that is possible.

Best,

Bruce

---

From: epastreich

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Emanuel Yi Pastreich <epastreich@asia-institute.org>
Date: Fri, Jul 3, 2015 at 12:31 AM
Subject: Re: note from Emanuel
To: Bruce Cumings <bcumings88@hotmail.com>

Dear Bruce,

I am still up.

I did write you in detail. Perhaps you never received the letter? That would explain much indeed. Let us start all over again. Where should I write?

Thanks

On Fri, Jul 3, 2015 at 12:29 AM, Bruce Cumings <bcumings88@hotmail.com> wrote:

Dear Emanuel,

I am sorry to have been out of touch. We are moving our entire household this summer, and I have been inundated with things that have to be done.

I would prefer for you to put your concerns in writing, rather than in a phone conversation. Let me know if that is possible.

Best,

Bruce

---

From: epastreich@asia-institute.org
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2015 08:28:31 +0900
Subject: note from Emanuel
To: bcumings88@hotmail.com

Dear Bruce,

I formally give up on trying to reach you by phone or email and I have not received a letter back from you concerning the matters I have raised previously.

This part of the conversation is over, but the judgment of history is ahead and it will be out of my hands.

Best from Seoul,

Emanuel

On Wed, Apr 15, 2015 at 6:07 AM, Emanuel Yi Pastreich <epastreich@asia-institute.org> wrote:

Dear Bruce, I will plan to call you. I am back in Korea and would very much appreciate your advice.

Thanks

Emanuel

On Wed, Mar 25, 2015 at 7:12 PM, Bruce Cumings <bcumings88@hotmail.com> wrote:

your message

---

Dear Emanuel,

Probably it's best to talk by phone. You can call me Tues-Fri at 703-849-0854. If I'm not there, please leave a message and I'll get back to you.

Best,

BC

---

Carl Estabrook was a fellow professor at the University of Illinois whose wife had been a dean and who had tried, in a small way to help me when the University set out to punish me early on. He quickly shut up when things looked risky. I appreciate that he responded at all, but granted the degree to which he attacked other academics for being cowardly, it seems a bit ridiculous to me. I guess I was the wrong kind of truth teller—the kind that does not exist.

Dec 15, 2015 at 11:38 AM, Carl G. Estabrook <galliher@illinois.edu> wrote:

Dear Emanuel,

I have just reread this letter and offer my commiserations for how you were treated at UIUC.

I have in my checkered academic career been fired from three institutions - and received no satisfaction from any of them.

I’m happy to see that you seem to have fetched up in an appropriate position: I assume that your language skills are not that common.

My advice - for what it’s worth - is that one’s energies should be devoted to current jobs and current problems, scholarly and political - there are of course plenty of each.

Let the dead bury the dead. The Salaita case may be worth reflecting on: Salaita has lost across the board - no job restored, and a career made radioactive…

As we know the university system - perhaps especially in these neoliberal days - is armored in its hypocrisy; as Chomsky says, “Everyone knows how it’s done…"

I just made my Advent confession this evening, and uppermost in my list of sins, offenses, and neglects was time spent over many years on incidental matters - rather than on family and writing. Freud is not wrong when he says that mental health is the capacity for love and work.

Best wishes for both for you in the coming year. “...night is coming when no one can work.”

Regards, Carl

---

David Palumbo-Liu had offer to help me out until he realized that I was serious about discussing openly what had taken place. I appreciated his advice, but when he said he did not know anything about my case, he is clearly lying. Basically, everyone in Asian studies at the time knew about this case.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Palumbo-Liu <djpl.2008@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Jun 9, 2015 at 4:42 AM
Subject:
To: epastreich@gmail.com

I do not often check my mailbox but I did today and found your letter. I am afraid that at this point I cannot offer much support since I know nothing about your case, except from what you describe. I in fact do not work in East Asian studies any longer, and was never in Korean studies, so I cannot judge the issue well from a disciplinary point of view. I must say that I did ask the person through whom you know me, John Treat (who of course is a specialist in these areas), and he is not convinced that you have a strong case.

I am sorry to disappoint you. I simply do not have the time to research all the details of your case to the degree necessary for me to be able to take a convincing public stance. I suggested a lawyer because some will take a case based on its merits.

I think it makes sense for you to decide what you really want to accomplish. It is highly unlikely you could be reinstated. A lawyer might be able to tell you if you could get some financial compensation. If you simply wish your case to be publicly acknowledged that might be possible, but for that to happen you would need a sizable number of, as you say, notable figures to step up. I would be willing to consider doing this if people like Professor Treat, who know the field and the case, were to convince me of its value.

I again apologize for not being able to do what you wish me to do.

DP-L

--

David Palumbo-Liu

---

Josh Fogel was a professor in Asian studies who had helped me in my career and who had led the cause against injustice and hypocrisy in academics in his writing. You might think from a reading of this response that I had asked him how to fight against unfair treatment by the university. I did not ask for advice. I asked him, I asked all of them, to talk to me and then to make a public statement. To this date, not a single one of my fellow academics have said anything, and we are now at 24 years.

On Fri, Oct 24, 2014 at 3:38 AM, Josh Fogel <fogel@yorku.ca> wrote:

Dear Emanuel,

I have meant to write you for several weeks, but one thing or another--most immediately, two extremely aging parents on the other coast--have consumed my time.

I read through the materials you gave me in Philadelphia. I was a bit surprised by Mark Selden's response. I think I misunderstood his motive, but I can't say for sure. We had a falling out several years ago and haven't had any contact. I always thought that, although our politics were often at odds, he had his heart in the right place. My thoughts, though, are oddly not that different. You feel very badly mistreated by the happenings in Illinois. Unfortunately, the right or best time to deal with such academic mishandling or improper behavior is right at the time. Now that a few years have passed, I don't know what you'd be in a position to do. I suppose you could contact a lawyer there--I'm sure there are lawyers who specialize in such things--but that would consume your time and money and might not change anything. That's your call. The world is full of injustice--far worse events this past week right here in Canada--and sometimes the right move is to move on. You've got a good job, you actually live in East Asia, and you must have frightfully good language skills at this point. In any event, some thoughts, but the next move is entirely your call.

I don't know that this is what you wanted to hear. I would hope that, having confided in me, you'll understand that I could care less about the Univ. of Illinois or any of the faculty or administrators there who caused you such trouble. I'm only thinking of your future.

With all best wishes,

Josh

P.S. I'd love to see your new book.

---

Mark Selden is another scholar of Japanese studies who ran the progressive and critical journal Japan Focus, which published my works once upon a time. He did take time to discuss my case one in person at a conference, but refused to make any statement, in spite of all his protests about evil things done to academics in other countries.

On Thu, Feb 6, 2014 at 11:25 PM, Mark Selden <mark.selden@cornell.edu> wrote:

Dear Emanuel,

I read the extraordinary story of your fourteen year ordeal.

Thank you for sharing it with me.

It stirs many thoughts.

•They include the sense that it is wonderful that you have been able to hit the ground running in your current position directing the Asia Institute.

•The issues you posed then remain critical today and our tasks include finding ways to advance them while averting armageddon.

I believe that our views differ, however, about how best to handle the painful past that you vividly describe.

It is essential that you find personal ways to come to terms with that past, including counseling, guidance, and sharing that experience with those closest with you in ways that will enable you to look ahead.

I do not believe that it is in the interest either of you or the cause of peace to publicly raise the issues described in the letter. To do so, I believe, will be not only painful but counterproductive to your work.

I realize that you will find that conclusion painful. And misguided. But it is my judgment.


Mark