Historian who urged caution on labeling actor Ha-young's great-grandfather a Japanese collaborator quietly makes posts private

Historian Shim Yong-hwan has made his Instagram posts private after arguing that labeling actor Ha-young's great-grandfather a pro-Japanese collaborator requires caution.

As of Saturday, two posts Shim had written about Ha-young's great-grandfather, Ahn Sang-ho, were no longer visible on his Instagram feed.

However, a lengthy statement uploaded Thursday to his YouTube channel "Hyeonjae History with Shim Yong-hwan" remains publicly accessible. Titled "On the issue of actor Ha-young's great-grandfather — why I said we should be 'cautious' about 'labeling someone a pro-Japanese collaborator,'" the video was posted Aug. 13.

In the statement, Shim opened by saying he had "spent a day in the heat of the related debate," adding that he had "received a great deal of personal criticism and witnessed various positions and back-and-forth arguments." He said he had intended to share further thoughts once the situation settled, but decided to respond sooner because "excessive misunderstandings, insults, and harm to those around me have been spreading."

He then analyzed the Daejeong Chinmok-hoe — a "fraternal society" cited as evidence of Ahn Sang-ho's pro-Japanese activities — drawing on academic papers that examined the organization.

Shim said research on the subject included two papers published by Jang Shin in 2007 and 2010, titled "The Daejeong Chinmok-hoe and the Naeseon Convergence Movement" and "The Joseon Ilbo's Founding and Operation by the Daejeong Chinmok-hoe in the 1920s." He noted that Ahn Sang-ho is mentioned six times in the first paper: Ahn appears on a list of 21 council members registered in November 1916, then disappears from subsequent rosters. The paper's author offers only a brief description — that Ahn was one of five medical professionals in the group, identified as a former royal physician to Emperor Gojong who ran the Ahn Sang-ho Clinic.

Shim also said records indicate that Ahn married a Japanese woman and that coverage in the Maeil Sinbo newspaper generated resentment toward him among Koreans.

On that basis, Shim suggested Ahn likely accommodated Japanese colonial rule and was actively involved in spreading modern medicine, while possibly having collaborated with Japanese authorities to a moderate degree in other areas.

Nevertheless, Shim argued that research on the Daejeong Chinmok-hoe yields only fragmentary records of Ahn's pro-Japanese activities, and that Ahn's name is absent from the Dictionary of Pro-Japanese Collaborators, making additional research and close scrutiny by specialists necessary.

He added that he would "reflect more deeply" on having caused "misunderstanding and a sense of insult," but stressed that "on this question of pro-Japanese collaboration, I hope we move forward in a direction that involves more deliberation and thereby achieves more certain historical progress."

Since Shim made those arguments, however, additional evidence of Ahn's pro-Japanese activities has emerged, prompting speculation that he made some posts private in response.