Hyukoh (left) and Ando Sakura (right) [Herald Muse]
Hyukoh (left) and Ando Sakura (right) [Herald Muse]

The casting of Japanese actor Ando Sakura in Korean band Hyukoh's new music video has stirred controversy, with some critics calling her a descendant of a "war criminal family."

Hyukoh releases its new single "Godspeed!" on Tuesday. The release has drawn attention as the band's first music since the EP "Sarangeuro" six years ago.

Ando appears in the music video for "Godspeed!" She is well known to Korean audiences through films including "Shoplifters," "Monster" and "100 Yen Love."

Some critics have noted that Ando is the great-granddaughter of Inukai Tsuyoshi (1855–1932), who served as Japan's 29th prime minister from 1931 to 1932, and have labeled her a descendant of a "war criminal family."

One outlet that raised the issue wrote that Inukai contributed an article titled "How to Enlighten Joseon" to the April 1896 issue of the Japanese publication "Nihonjin." The piece argued in essence that "foolish Koreans, who lack the refined spirit befitting noble Japanese but possess sturdy bodies, should labor" — a passage the outlet described as a direct expression of imperialist ideology. The outlet also noted that Inukai's son, Inukai Takeru, later served as justice minister.

Others, however, argue that describing the Inukai family as a "war criminal family" does not hold up to scrutiny. Inukai Tsuyoshi was assassinated in 1932, before World War II broke out, and was never designated a war criminal by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East — the Tokyo Trials — which the Allied powers convened after the war to prosecute war criminals.

His son, Inukai Takeru, served as a member of Japan's House of Representatives from 1930 to 1947, a period that included the Pacific War. After Japan's defeat, US occupation authorities removed him briefly from public office on grounds of political responsibility for cooperating with the war effort, before he returned to serve as justice minister. He, too, was never officially designated a war criminal.

Critics note that while the Inukai family's prominent roles in Japanese politics during the imperial era clearly implicate them in the illegal domination and exploitation of the Korean Peninsula and in wars of imperialist aggression, the label "war criminal family" is not, in a strict sense, factually accurate.


paq@heraldcorp.com