Actor Ha Young. [Herald Muse]
Actor Ha Young. [Herald Muse]

As actor Ha Young found herself at the center of controversy over her great-grandfather's alleged pro-Japanese activities during the colonial era, Park Yu-ha, an emeritus professor at Sejong University and author of "Comfort Women of the Empire," pushed back, calling the criticism a product of "purity obsession" and urging a closer look at historical context.

Writing on Facebook on Tuesday, Park assessed Ha Young's great-grandfather Ahn Sang-ho — widely known as Korea's first Western-trained physician — as "a figure who symbolized the civilization and modernization of Joseon," saying the title he held reflected exactly that.

According to the Korean History Information System, Ahn Sang-ho (1872–1927) was the first government-sponsored overseas student from the Korean Empire. He graduated from Tokyo Jikei Medical School in Japan in 1902 and became the first Korean to obtain a Japanese medical license. After returning home, he served as personal physician to emperors Gojong and Sunjong.

Park said it was "a natural progression" that Ahn became Sunjong's personal physician after returning home, given that the state had trained him at its own expense, and that the honor and wealth that followed would have come with the position. "He appears to have been a pioneer in medicine through his own ability and state support, rather than someone who built his reputation through pro-Japanese collaboration," she said.

On criticism that Ahn's treatment of Yi Wan-yong — one of the five ministers who signed the Eulsa Treaty — constituted a pro-Japanese act, Park questioned whether a physician's medical care should be interpreted as a political act at all. "Even if it had been an ordinary commoner rather than Yi Wan-yong, people would have wanted to be treated by him if they could," she said.

Regarding Ahn's marriage to a Japanese woman, Park noted that he had traveled to Japan at the request of Prince Uichin to serve as a royal physician, and argued that holding Ha Young accountable for her Japanese lineage simply because she is Ahn's descendant was inappropriate.

Park also addressed criticism of Ha Young's grandfather's service on Sorokdo island, citing several historical factors: that Japan performed the same forced sterilization procedures on its own citizens with Hansen's disease; that what had been illegal surgeries carried out at some doctors' discretion were actually legalized in 1948; and that the law was not repealed until the 1990s. "It was not targeting Koreans alone," she said, adding that the historical circumstances must be taken into account.

"It is something that deserves condemnation, but the atrocity should not be seen solely as an individual's crime — it was a crime born of the ignorance of the times," Park said. "At the time, it was actually regarded as a civilized and rational measure."

She went on to say that "anyone who held a leadership position in politics, the economy, culture or education under Japanese colonial rule was structurally pro-Japanese, from their schooling to their activities," and that "if we reject all of them, it amounts to saying that no talent should have been cultivated throughout the entire colonial period."

"Are we saying that Korean politicians, Korean company heads and Korean school principals should not have existed at all — that we would have preferred to be ruled directly by the Japanese?" she said. She added that critics of Ha Young should consider the possibility that among their own ancestors, some may have been among the first to apply for Japanese-style name changes.

Park attributed the attacks on Ha Young to what she called "purity obsession." "It is contradictory that those who want to deny the very fact of colonization are the ones frantically searching for its traces," she said. "Whether it is a complex, an obsession or a persecution complex, healing requires first embracing the shame as one's own — and that means confronting it squarely."


betterj@heraldcorp.com