'My great-grandfather was a collaborator, too': A nurse's confession amid the Ha Young controversy

As actor Ha Young, 33, has apologized over controversy surrounding her great-grandfather Ahn Sang-ho's pro-Japanese activities, a separate online account from a person who says she discovered her own family's collaboration through a film has drawn widespread attention.

On Tuesday, a post titled "Thoughts of a pro-Japanese collaborator's descendant on Ha Young's great-grandfather" appeared on the online community Nate Pann.

The author, identified only as A, described herself as a nurse and referenced the film "Assassination." She claimed that Kang In-guk — the character played by actor Lee Gyeong-yeong, who struggles to secure a gold mine concession in the film — matched her own great-grandfather's circumstances. "My great-grandfather was the one who actually obtained that gold mine concession," she wrote.

She said that when her family watched the film together and criticized the character, her father told her: "Your great-grandfather is that character in the film — the one who held the gold mine concession."

According to A, her father had not known the full extent of his own father's pro-Japanese activities and had only understood that the family came to hold the concession through some form of service to the state. It was only after recognizing how difficult it would have been to obtain such a concession given the historical circumstances of the time that her father began researching the matter and uncovered the collaboration.

A shared this family history while drawing a parallel to the Ha Young controversy.

On the controversy, she said Ha Young "should have reflected on this herself. She may well have already known about her great-grandfather's pro-Japanese activities." She added that "particularly if she knew he had treated Emperor Gojong, it would have been even easier to look into the actual history."

She went on to say, "Her parents always spoke of it with pride, so she probably lived with a sense of family honor and never even thought to look into it." She said, "It is right that the descendants of pro-Japanese collaborators should not live well. The karmic debt has no choice but to come back to their descendants."

A added that her own father "failed in business, has been working day labor jobs and is suffering from depression, and my aunt and uncle are also living difficult lives." She said that even when dealing with difficult or rude patients at work, she thinks of it as "clearing the karmic debt of my ancestors" and pushes herself to work twice as hard.

Meanwhile, Ha Young sparked public interest on Friday when she appeared on a television entertainment program and introduced herself as coming from "a family of doctors for four generations," saying her great-grandfather "opened the first Western-style medical clinic in Hanyang and treated Emperor Gojong."

Speculation soon emerged that the great-grandfather in question was Ahn Sang-ho.

Ahn Sang-ho (1872–1927) was the first Korean to obtain a Japanese medical license and served as an outside physician to Emperors Sunjong and Gojong. He was listed as a council member of the Daejeong fraternal society, a group known for its pro-Japanese orientation, in 1916. Records also indicate he married a Japanese woman, promoted a Japanese lifestyle and publicly advocated for the "naeseon ilche" policy of assimilation between Korea and Japan.

Particularly notable was a 1918 article in the Maeil Sinbo newspaper in which Ahn was quoted after marrying his Japanese wife as saying: "I am exactly the same as a Japanese person. I do not own a single piece of Korean clothing, and I cannot eat spicy food."

As the controversy grew, Ha Young posted a handwritten letter on her social media on Wednesday, saying: "Until now, I had only a fragmentary understanding of my great-grandfather's life through stories passed down within the family. Shamefully, in that state of ignorance, I had brought up my great-grandfather in various settings as a source of family pride." She added: "I accept that fault gravely and sincerely apologize as his descendant."