Actor Ha Young speaks at a press conference for the new Netflix series "This Bittersweet Love" held at Hotel Naru Seoul MGallery in Mapo-gu, Seoul, on Friday. [Yonhap/Netflix]
Actor Ha Young speaks at a press conference for the new Netflix series "This Bittersweet Love" held at Hotel Naru Seoul MGallery in Mapo-gu, Seoul, on Friday. [Yonhap/Netflix]

An official blog post by the city of Anyang in Gyeonggi Province that described Ahn Sang-ho — the great-grandfather of actor Ha Young — as an independence fighter has been made private, amid a growing controversy over his alleged pro-Japanese collaboration.

Anyang city said Wednesday that officials recently set the post to private.

The post, published in 2020, read: "Meeting Teacher Ahn Sang-ho for the first time. There are so many independence fighters from Anyang. He made me feel that the independence movement was not only about those who stood at the forefront and took action against Japanese leaders, but that one could also carry out the struggle within one's own field."

The city took the post down after the controversy over Ahn's pro-Japanese activities recently came to light.

The controversy began when Ha Young, Ahn's great-granddaughter, introduced her family on a television program as "a family of doctors for four generations." On the KBS 2TV program "Rooftop Troublemakers" on Friday, she said her great-grandfather had opened the first Western-medicine clinic in Hanyang and treated Emperor Gojong. After it became known that the great-grandfather in question was Ahn Sang-ho, a dispute erupted over his conduct during the Japanese colonial period.

Ahn served as a council member of the Daejeong Chinmok-hoe — a prominent pro-Japanese organization — in 1916, and in an interview with the Maeil Sinbo made remarks identifying himself with the Japanese. Married to a Japanese woman, he told the interviewer that he dressed and ate in the Japanese style, spoke only Japanese at home so that his children did not know the Korean language, and had no dealings with Koreans. The Japanese Government-General used him as a model of everyday "naeseon ilche" among successful Korean intellectuals, actively deploying his example to justify colonial rule. Naeseon ilche was the colonial slogan asserting that Korea ("Joseon") and Japan proper ("naeseon," the Japanese mainland) were one body.

Ha Young posted a handwritten letter on social media Wednesday, saying she had known only fragments of her great-grandfather's life through stories passed down by her family. "Through the process of looking up related materials myself after this incident, I came to learn of my great-grandfather's pro-Japanese conduct," she said. "I reflect on the fact that I casually mentioned my family history without properly understanding our country's painful history of Japanese colonial rule." She added: "I do not think the fact that I was unaware can be a reason to turn away from or take lightly that history. I accept those wrongs with gravity and sincerely apologize as a descendant. I will look more carefully at my family's history and that era, and will take a more cautious attitude toward history going forward. I will also devote myself to studying our history in depth and to honoring with respect all those who dedicated themselves to independence and to the peace and well-being of our country."


paq@heraldcorp.com