Calls grow in National Assembly to probe actor Ha Young's great-grandfather's colonial-era land

Amid growing controversy over actor Ha Young's great-grandfather Ahn Sang-ho and his alleged pro-Japanese collaboration, a lawmaker has called for an investigation into whether his estate qualifies as pro-Japanese property subject to state confiscation.

Rebuilding Korea Party lawmaker Park Eun-jeong raised the issue Friday at a plenary session of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, telling Deputy Justice Minister Lee Jin-su that Ahn's family "appears to have been a major landowning family that held large tracts of land around Anyang Station and Gunpo Station." She added that Ahn "was already a large landowner who had accumulated his wealth during the Japanese colonial period — not afterward through his medical practice — and the property appears to have been pro-Japanese assets."

Earlier reports cited land survey records from the 1910s, during the Japanese colonial period, showing that Ahn owned 8,910 square meters of land in what was then Geumjeong-ri, Namyeon, Siheung County — present-day Gunpo. The state expropriated the land in 1983, but it has not been confirmed whether Ahn's descendants still held ownership at that time and received compensation.

Park noted that Ahn has not been formally designated a pro-Japanese collaborator subject to asset confiscation, but argued that "even those who were left off past lists should have their pro-Japanese property recovered by the state without exception."

Ahn does not appear on the official lists of pro-Japanese collaborators published by the Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities or the Presidential Committee for the Inspection of Collaborations for Japanese Imperialism.

Deputy Minister Lee said a preparatory body for the Committee for Investigation of Pro-Japanese Collaborators' Property had been formed and was carrying out groundwork ahead of a planned December launch. "We will make sure the committee is properly organized and gets off to a good start," he said.

The committee concluded its activities in 2010 and is set to relaunch in December following an amendment to the Special Act on the State Reversion of Pro-Japanese Collaborators' Property. It will identify pro-Japanese collaborators, investigate whether their assets constitute pro-Japanese property, and issue binding determinations — with any property so designated reverting to the state as a matter of principle.

The controversy over Ha Young's great-grandfather surfaced after the actor described her family on broadcasts as "a family of doctors for four generations." Ahn Sang-ho is recognized as the first modern licensed physician in Korea to have studied Western medicine in Japan. He is reported to have served as a council member of the Daejeong Chinmok-hoe — an organization the Japanese Government-General of Korea designated in 1916 as a body supporting colonial rule and promoting assimilation between Japan and Korea. It has also been confirmed that he treated Yi Wan-yong, one of the most prominent pro-Japanese collaborators of the era, after Yi was wounded in an assassination attempt.