'Pro-Japanese ancestor scanner' goes viral following actor Ha Young's family controversy
Users can search their clan on the "pro-Japanese collaborator scanner" to check whether their ancestors were recognized as contributors to Korea's independence movement or as pro-Japanese collaborators.
Actor Ha Young poses at a press conference for the Netflix series “Our Sticky Love” at Hotel Naru Seoul MGallery in Mapo District, western Seoul, on Aug. 5.
NEWS1
A website that allows users to check whether they have ancestral ties to pro-Japanese collaborators is going viral on social media after actor Ha Young’s great-grandfather was found to have participated in pro-Japanese activities.
Users can search their surname and clan on the “pro-Japanese collaborator scanner,” built by an independent developer, to check whether their ancestors were recognized as contributors to Korea’s independence movement or as pro-Japanese collaborators.
The database draws on records of 19,059 independence movement contributors registered in the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs’ archives, as well as 1,006 individuals designated as pro-Japanese collaborators by the Presidential Committee for Inspection of Collaborations for Japanese Imperialism. The scanner also uses data from Wikidata and Wikipedia to supplement clan information.
The site’s developer, however, noted that sharing the same clan does not indicate a direct blood relationship or degree of kinship. “A single clan can include hundreds of thousands of members or more, and an ancestor’s actions are not an individual descendant’s responsibility in keeping with the prohibition of guilt-by-association under Article 13, Section 3 of the Constitution,” it said.
On Aug. 7, Ha Young said in a televised comment that her family had produced doctors across four generations: her great-grandfather, grandfather, father and older sister. After the broadcast, users online found records showing that her great-grandfather, An Sang-ho, served as a council member of the Daejeong Chinmokhoe, a pro-Japanese organization founded in 1916.
The actor’s agency initially denied the allegations but soon reversed course and acknowledged them. On Wednesday, Ha Young posted a handwritten apology on her social media. “Out of ignorance, I brought up stories about my great-grandfather on multiple occasions as if they were a source of family pride,” she wrote. “I reflect with regret on having spoken lightly of my family history without properly understanding the painful history of the [1910-45] Japanese colonial era.”
BY SHIN HYE-YEON [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
