Paper linking actor Ha Young's great-grandfather to treatment of pro-Japanese collaborator spreads online

An academic paper identifying Ahn Sang-ho — the great-grandfather of actor Ha Young, who revealed on a television program that she comes from a four-generation family of doctors — as one of the physicians who saved Yi Wan-yong, the notorious pro-Japanese collaborator, after an independence activist stabbed him is spreading online.

Posts titled "Paper also exhumed on Ha Young's great-grandfather (record of treating and saving Yi Wan-yong)" began circulating Tuesday on online communities including Instiz.

The posts are screenshots of the section of a paper on Yi Wan-yong in which Ha Young's great-grandfather Ahn Sang-ho is named.

The paper, titled "Research on Yi Wan-yong — Focusing on His Conduct as a Pro-American, Pro-Russian and Pro-Japanese Figure," was written by historian Park Young-seok (1932–2017), a former history professor at Konkuk University, and published in volume 32 of the journal Guksagwan Nonchong.

The posts excerpt page 238 of that volume, which covers the incident in which Yi Wan-yong was stabbed by independence activist Lee Jae Myung on Dec. 22, 1909, as Yi was returning from a memorial service for the Belgian emperor held at Myeongdong Cathedral. The rickshaw driver carrying Yi, Park Won-mun, was killed on the spot by Lee's blade. Yi collapsed with a stab wound to the shoulder and was rushed to hospital in a coma.

The paper states: "His life was saved through treatment by the top physicians of the day, including Dr. Tsuruta of Hanseong Hospital, the director of Andong Hospital, Daehan Hospital director Kikuchi, deputy director Takashina, royal physician Park Jong-hwan, and Ahn Sang-ho. While pro-Japanese figures lined up outside Yi Wan-yong's hospital room to visit, the Korean people rejoiced at the feat of Dr. Lee Jae Myung."

According to historical records, the surgery Yi Wan-yong underwent is considered the first thoracic surgery performed in Korea. Yi was discharged after 53 days in hospital and reinstated as prime minister a month later. He subsequently affixed his seal to the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty on Aug. 22, 1910, which transferred "complete and permanent sovereignty over all of Korea to Japan."

Lee Jae Myung shouted "Long live Korean independence" immediately after the attack, was seized by Japanese police and imprisoned at Seodaemun Prison. He was sentenced to death and died for his country on Sept. 13, 1910.

Ahn Sang-ho graduated from Tokyo Jikei Medical School in Japan in 1902 and became the first Korean to obtain a Japanese medical license. After returning to Korea in 1904, he served as a royal physician to Emperor Sunjong and as a contracted doctor to the Yi Royal Household Office, and opened Korea's first Western-style medical clinic.

He was featured in the Maeil Sinbo — the official organ of the Japanese Government-General of Korea — as a "model case of Naeseon ilche," the colonial policy of assimilating Korea into Japan, and is confirmed to have been a member of the pro-Japanese business association Daejong Silop Chinmok-hoe. Min Young-gi, vice president of the Oriental Development Company and a designated pro-Japanese anti-national figure, founded the association in November 1916, and its membership included a significant number of the era's pro-Japanese collaborators, among them Yi Wan-yong, Jo Jung-eung, Song Byong-jun and Yi Yun-yong.

Regarding the great-grandfather's pro-Japanese activities, Ha Young's agency initially issued a statement Monday saying the claims were "groundless," only to apologize and acknowledge them the following day after the controversy grew, saying it had "responded without sufficient verification."

Agency Bisters Entertainment said Tuesday: "It is correct that Ha Young's great-grandfather is Ahn Sang-ho and her grandfather is the late Ahn Bu-ho, a department head professor at the Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine," adding that "records exist showing Ahn Sang-ho's name on the list of council members of the Daejong Chinmok-hoe, formed in 1916."

Earlier, Ha Young appeared Friday on KBS 2TV's "Oktapbang-ui Munje-a," a TV quiz program, and said her great-grandfather had completed studies in Japan before opening the first Western-style hospital in Hanyang and serving as physician to Emperor Gojong. She also revealed that her grandfather, father and older sister had all become doctors, making hers a four-generation medical family — a disclosure that drew wide attention.