Actor Ha-young's great-grandfather's pro-Japanese past draws scrutiny — and her mother's old interview resurfaces

As controversy grows over the pro-Japanese activities of actor Ha-young's great-grandfather Ahn Sang-ho, a past interview given by her mother, Lee Mi-sook, 73, former chief executive of CoreMed, is also drawing renewed attention online.

An interview Lee gave to the Digital Times in 2011 has been circulating widely online in recent days.

In the interview, Lee said, "As I've lived, I've come to realize that money isn't everything. There was a time when I was tempted to earn a lot, but not anymore."

She offered a personal example: "I once kept 100 million won ($70,700) in a safe for a long time. Having cash sitting there made me feel oddly satisfied. Then I put in 200 million won, and from that point on, it didn't feel much different."

She added, "I don't think you need that much money. Enough to live a reasonably comfortable life is sufficient." She also said she no longer chases big windfalls and is not particularly set on a Kosdaq listing.

Lee's impressive career has also drawn attention. Born in 1953, she graduated from Busan Catholic University in 1975 before heading to Norway, where she studied industrial design for about five years. After returning to South Korea, she lectured on industrial design theory at Kookmin University and other institutions for more than 15 years, then served as editor-in-chief of a medical trade journal and as an administrative director at a general hospital before running CoreMed, a company combining medical and IT services.

Particularly notable is that the 1970s were a period when long-term overseas study — let alone travel abroad — was difficult for most Koreans, given government restrictions on studying abroad, limited foreign exchange reserves and high costs. Her roughly five years in Norway have prompted questions about her family's financial background.

Lee's background has come under fresh scrutiny after her daughter Ha-young recently revealed on a television program that her family has produced doctors across four generations — her great-grandfather, grandfather, father and older sister all practiced medicine.

Ha-young's great-grandfather has been identified as Ahn Sang-ho, recognized as Korea's first modern private physician. His pro-Japanese record is now at the center of the controversy. Ahn was a council member of the Daejeong Chinmok-hoe, a pro-Japanese organization whose members included prominent collaborators such as Lee Wan-yong and Min Yeong-gi. He also treated Lee Wan-yong after the latter was wounded in an attack by an independence activist, and his name appeared on a memorial preparatory committee for Ito Hirobumi, who was killed by independence fighter Ahn Jung-geun. In an interview published in the Maeil Sinbo, Ahn Sang-ho said he dressed and ate in the Japanese style, spoke only Japanese at home so that his children did not know the Korean language, and had no dealings with Koreans.

Ha-young's grandfather, Ahn Bu-ho, has also drawn controversy after it emerged that he worked at the National Sorokdo Hospital in South Jeolla Province from 1949 to 1953. Sorokdo, in Goheung County, was a site where the government forcibly isolated Hansen's disease patients. During the period when Ahn Bu-ho was stationed there, patients were subjected to forced sterilizations, abortions and other human rights abuses. Whether he was directly involved in those practices has not been confirmed.

Ha-young posted a handwritten apology on social media on Wednesday, saying she had known only fragments of her great-grandfather's life through stories passed down within the family. "Through the process of looking into related materials myself after this incident, I came to learn of my great-grandfather's pro-Japanese activities," she wrote. "I reflect on the fact that I casually mentioned my family history without properly understanding the painful chapter of our nation's history under Japanese colonial rule." She added: "I do not believe that my ignorance can serve as a reason to turn away from or take lightly that history. I accept those wrongs with a heavy heart and sincerely apologize as a descendant." Ha-young also pledged to examine her family's history and the era more carefully, to study Korean history in greater depth, and to honor those who dedicated themselves to independence and the nation's liberation.