Actor Ha Young. [Yonhap]
Actor Ha Young. [Yonhap]

Amid the ongoing controversy over actor Ha Young's alleged descent from a pro-Japanese collaborator, ahead of Liberation Day on Saturday, a historian has called for equal attention to the current circumstances of independence fighters' descendants.

Park Gwang-il, a historian and author, appeared on CBS Radio's "Park Sung-tae's News Show" on Friday and said flatly that the pro-Japanese conduct of Ha Young's great-grandfather, An Sang-ho (1872–1927), amounted to collaboration.

"The Daejeong fraternal society is clearly a pro-Japanese organization, and An Sang-ho was listed as a member," Park said. "When you look at his subsequent conduct together with that membership, it can be seen as pro-Japanese collaboration."

He added that the question of whether descendants bear responsibility is separate from whether An escaped punishment — including asset confiscation — by being left out of the Dictionary of Pro-Japanese Collaborators. "Just because he wasn't punished doesn't mean descendants can say they bear no responsibility," Park said. "Descendants should have a foundation from which they can examine their own family history a little more closely."

Park then said he hoped people would consider the other side of the equation — the present situation of independence fighters' descendants.

"Back then, if a student took part in the independence movement even once, they were expelled from school," he said. "That meant they couldn't receive a proper education, couldn't find decent work, and their descendants in turn faced difficulties growing into full members of society. If you place the circumstances of independence fighters' descendants alongside this debate and consider them on equal footing, I think you can easily understand what the current controversy surrounding An Sang-ho really means."

Park also explained the background to the dictionary's 2005 compilation, noting that there had been fierce opposition at the time. "Because there was so much pushback when the Dictionary of Pro-Japanese Collaborators was being compiled, the editors focused as much as possible on the most clear-cut cases," he said. "Rather than deliberately leaving people out, the approach was to set borderline cases aside and revisit them through further research later."

He added that those left out of the dictionary could well be added as research into pro-Japanese collaboration expands. "If the dictionary's criteria were applied a little more actively, An Sang-ho could in fact be included," Park said.


jshan@heraldcorp.com