Actor Ha Young, great-grandfather Ahn Sang-ho's pro-Japanese controversy... Agency denies, then reverses stance and issues official apology

Actor Ha Young has issued an official statement through her agency regarding allegations of pro-Japanese collaboration during the Japanese colonial period involving her great-grandfather, Ahn Sang-ho. On the 11th, Busters Entertainment announced in an official statement that they had additionally confirmed records showing that Ha Young’s great-grandfather, Ahn Sang-ho, was listed as a council member of the Daejeong Chinmokhoe in 1916. The Daejeong Chinmokhoe is known as a representative pro-Japanese organization during the Japanese colonial era. The agency reversed its previous stance, which had denied the allegations as groundless, and apologized for causing confusion by responding hastily without sufficient verification. Ha Young recently mentioned her family’s four generations of medical professionals during a broadcast program. Regarding this, the agency stated, ″Actor Ha Young mentioned her family’s four generations of medical professionals while responding to questions on a recent broadcast program. The actor herself is feeling very heavy-hearted about the unintended controversy that arose from this.″ Ahn Sang-ho graduated from Tokyo Jikei Medical School in Japan in 1902 and obtained a Japanese medical license. He returned to Korea in 1904 and opened a clinic in Jongno 3-ga. Records show that in 1919, he treated Emperor Gojong alongside Japanese medical staff. A 1918 article in the Maeil Shinbo reported that Ahn Sang-ho married a Japanese woman and followed Japanese lifestyle customs. Ha Young’s grandfather, Professor Ahn Bu-ho, graduated from Gyeongseong Medical School and served as a professor in the pathology department at Chonnam National University Medical School, laying the foundation for clinical pathology in Korea. From 1949, he worked at the National Sorokdo Hospital, dedicating himself to the eradication and treatment of Hansen’s disease. Ha Young’s father, Director Ahn Byung-moon, graduated from Seoul National University College of Medicine and has continued his career as an orthopedic specialist. Ha Young’s older sister is also working as an internal medicine professor at a hospital in Seoul. The Academy of Korean Studies explained that there is insufficient data to verify the truth of the pro-Japanese allegations against Ahn Sang-ho. It was also confirmed that Ahn Sang-ho’s name is not listed in the Dictionary of Pro-Japanese Collaborators published by the Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities in 2009. Ha Young debuted in 2019 with the drama Doctor Prisoner and has appeared in Netflix’s Trauma Center, Monthly Boyfriend, True Education, and This Damn Love. Next year, she is set to appear in the SBS drama There Is a Chance.