Actor Ha-young's great-grandfather said he lived 'just like a Japanese' in unearthed 1918 interview, stirring controversy

Actor Ha-young speaks at a press conference for the new Netflix series "This Lousy Love" held at Hotel Naru Seoul MGallery in Mapo-gu, Seoul, on Wednesday. [Yonhap·Netflix]

Actor Ha-young (real name Ahn Ha-young) drew public attention after revealing she comes from a family of doctors spanning four generations — but the resurfacing of historical records about her ancestors has stirred controversy. Her great-grandfather was featured in a Japanese colonial-era government newspaper as a model case of "Naeseon ilche," the assimilationist ideology, and her grandfather worked at Sorokdo National Hospital, an institution associated with serious human rights abuses against Hansen's disease patients.

The Maeil Sinbo, an organ of the Japanese Government-General of Korea, published an article on Dec. 10, 1918, under the headline "The Fully Japanized Household of Dr. Ahn Sang-ho."

Ahn Sang-ho, Ha-young's great-grandfather, graduated from Tokyo Jikei Medical School in 1902 and became the first Korean to obtain a Japanese medical license. He later returned to Korea, served as a royal physician to Emperor Sunjong and as a contracted doctor for the Yi Royal Household Office, and opened the country's first Western-style medical clinic.

The content of his interview with the Maeil Sinbo has drawn particular scrutiny.

In the interview, Ahn said he was "just like a Japanese," wearing Japanese clothing, married to a Japanese woman, and running his household entirely according to Japanese customs — including food and daily routines.

He also said his children did not know the Korean language because it was not spoken at home, and that he had almost no contact with other Koreans. The Government-General used the interview as a showcase of "Naeseon ilche" in practice, presenting Ahn as a model of a successful Korean intellectual who had fully assimilated, and actively deployed it to justify colonial rule.

"Naeseon ilche" — literally "Japan and Korea as one body" — was a colonial slogan promoted by the Japanese Empire during its occupation of Korea to push for the complete assimilation of Koreans into Japanese society.

Ahn Sang-ho was also listed as a member of the Daejong Silup Chinmok-hoe, a business association that included numerous pro-Japanese collaborators. The group was founded in November 1916 under the chairmanship of Min Yeong-gi, vice president of the Oriental Development Company and himself a designated collaborator, and counted among its members figures such as Lee Wan-yong, Jo Jung-eung, Song Byeong-jun and Lee Yun-yong — all identified as pro-Japanese collaborators.

His name also appears in records related to the alleged poisoning of Emperor Gojong.

Yi Bang-ja, the last crown princess of the Korean Empire, wrote in her memoir that she had heard an unexpected rumor: that the Japanese Government-General had ordered royal physician Ahn Sang-ho to poison the emperor.

A similar account appears in "Secret History of the Yi Royal Palace," the memoir of Kondo Shirosuke, a Japanese official who served in the imperial household at the time. The book records a rumor that "His Majesty's sudden death was because Min Byeong-seok and Yun Deok-yeong conspired with a high official of the Government-General and ordered Ahn Sang-ho to administer poison."

However, Ahn Sang-ho's name does not appear in the "Dictionary of Pro-Japanese Collaborators" published by the Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities, and no legal or academic determination has formally designated him as a pro-Japanese collaborator.

Controversy has also surrounded Ha-young's grandfather, the late Ahn Bu-ho, a former head professor at the Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine, who conducted Hansen's disease research at Sorokdo National Hospital from 1949 through the early 1950s. That period was marked by serious human rights abuses at the facility, including forced vasectomies, forced abortions and compulsory labor.

However, there is no confirmed evidence that Professor Ahn directly participated in those abuses.

Meanwhile, Ha-young made her debut in 2019 in the KBS 2TV drama series "Doctor Prisoner" and gained wider recognition through "Extraordinary Attorney Woo." She went on to win public affection playing nurse Cheon Jang-mi in "The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call," and recently appeared in a significant role in the widely discussed series "Cham Gyoyuk." In the Netflix drama series released Friday, she takes on her first lead role alongside Jung Hae-in.

yeonjoo7@heraldcorp.com