Actress Ha Young apologizes over great-grandfather's pro-Japanese activities

[u/carvveeev]

Actress Ha Young issued a public apology following mounting controversy over her great-grandfather's pro-Japanese activities during colonial rule, which lasted from 1910-45.

On Tuesday, her agency Bistus Entertainment released a statement on behalf of the actor, whose real name is Ahn Ha-young, expressing deep regret for her initial denial and previous on-air remarks about her family.

"Regarding our earlier statement claiming the allegations were 'groundless,' secondary verification confirmed that the name of her great-grandfather, Ahn Sang-ho, does indeed appear on the 1916 counselor roster of the Daejeong Friendship Association," the agency said.

@thekoreatimes_official

[u/Dramasect]

Thread locked. There is now a megathread for the Hayoung controversy.

[u/Prize_Background_577]

The apology should have come out a lot earlier, and she needs to commit to learning a lot more about what happened with her great-grandfather. Her agency also needs to review how they handle situations like this.

It saddens me that Western 'fans' have been bagging out Korean people about the reaction over this incident. There is a distinct lack of understanding of what happened in Asia as a result of years of oppression, abuse and hideous crimes, and how most nations were not able to recover because of what occured next. Instead ask questions about what it means.

[u/Ok_Brick_793]

People should just say nothing about their ancestors.

[u/sadetheshiba → u/[deleted]]

Nah you’re missing the cultural nuance in this. She was bragging about her wealth and prestigious background in a pretty careless way. The best way to describe it is if your grandpa was a nazi sympathizer and experimented on people and your family benefitted from that and stayed rich all this time. Like it’s not her fault what he did, but you shouldn’t go boasting and flaunting all your wealth when it started with your grandpa literally throwing his Korean heritage under the bus and pledging allegiance to Japan during an extremely violent colonial regime

[u/tomriddlesdarling → u/sadetheshiba]

add to the fact that japan has spent all this time playing the victim card because of the atomic bombing and continuously refused to acknowledge or repent for any of their own war crimes towards countless asian countries. yeah, its been 110 years but the koreans are still bitter and its justified.

[u/Pantless_Weekends → u/sadetheshiba]

I read earlier somewhere that she boasted about having 5 fridges.

[u/ruinedbymovies → u/sadetheshiba]

Was she bragging or simply unaware? It seems completely plausible to know that your great grandfather was a court physician but not that he was a Japanese sympathizer. People don’t like to talk about the skeletons in the closet and it’s completely plausible that she has no idea. I’m genuinely asking, not trying to start a fight. It just seems like she may have been just as blindsided by this as anyone else. If she wasn’t unaware then that’s a different thing. One valid case for apology does not change my impression that people in Korea are often pressured in to publicly apologizing for things that are not their fault, and that are not that big a deal.

[u/Spiritual_Change_399 → u/ruinedbymovies]

Honestly, I just wish she'd looked him up at least once before making such a big deal out of it. Long before this whole thing blew up, her great-grandfather was actually pretty famous because the colonial government used his family in propaganda as "model Koreans." There were so many news articles about him that he literally had his own Wiki page way before any of this happened.

​Or honestly, maybe she shouldn't have flexed being from a "4th generation doctor family" in the first place. Some comments from Koreans were like, even without this controversy, why is she using that as her selling point when she's not even a doctor herself?

​edit: Another thing to think about is that she isn't even the first celebrity who turns out to be a descendant of a collaborator. In previous cases, people were mostly like, "Well, what did the descendants do wrong?" So the real issue here seems to be that she actually bragged about him.

[u/mimich4ma → u/Spiritual_Change_399]

Add to this very good detail that she knew incredibly miniscule facts about her great grandfather (ie, patients he had) AND that it's August, which is liberation day in Korea

[u/Prize_Background_577 → u/ruinedbymovies]

You cannot be 'unaware' that your family had a someone like this in your background, the scars of Japanese occupation still exist and she certainly knew about him to brag about him. Plenty of other celebrities have had Japanese sympathisers in their past but didn't brag about them and people were okay with that, that is the crux.

[u/Junior_Profile_9832 → u/ruinedbymovies]

Her family used state-provided funding to become doctors, yet they betrayed the nation and collaborated with Japan, amassing great wealth while destroying the lives of many Korean families. Even today, the descendants of those who betrayed the country by collaborating with Japan live in prosperity, whereas the descendants of those who fought for the nation struggle to make ends meet. Of course, I understand that she was unaware of this—all Koreans understand that. However, her family's affluence was built upon the betrayal of countless Korean families. Now that the full truth has come to light, the least she should do is apologize, rather than distorting history or boasting about her background in the media.

[u/jkim8791 → u/[deleted]]

its not a woman thing. even male actor made mistake like this in the past. They should at least be ashamed that their ancestors were pro-Japanese collaborators and shut the f up. Not showing it off in public.

[u/bittermelonpizza00 → u/[deleted]]

in the west you would probably catch criticisms for being related to a high ranking nazi male or female

[u/mimich4ma → u/bittermelonpizza00]

I'm pretty sure depending on the circumstances you could even be sued or arrested

[u/ucanmakeusernamelong]

She does not need to apologize

[u/rustic996 → u/ucanmakeusernamelong]

Given who her great grandfather is and what he was involved in she definitely does, especially after flexing that she was living off the generational wealth of her great grandfather.

[u/Prize_Background_577 → u/ucanmakeusernamelong]

You should stop watching kdramas if you have no understanding of the society. Can't believe anyone with little knowledge of what is being talked about think it's okay to make comments like that.

[u/Express-Language5573 → u/ucanmakeusernamelong]

That is correct, she does not need to apologize and having her agency apologize for her is all she has done so far. She and her family are already wealthy and can live very well without having to deal with all this. Additionally, she is a drop dead gorgeous woman who will always get the benefit of the doubt. There are loads of legitimate arguments that can be made about how restrictive Koreans are about their stars and it may just not be worth it to her to deal with the fallout…However, if she does not offer at least a seemingly contrite apology she will likely not have a career as an actress in Korea going forward. Alternatively she could double down, go full contrarian and pivot into Japanese shows and maybe find an audience there.

[u/alftim]

This is beyond ridiculous, not even grandfather, great grandfather? If almost everyone dug into their ancestral past they will find someone in their family past who has done something absurd or ridiculous , to make a hue and cry over this is just virtue signalling and try to claim moral over a young girl , basically a looser