SEOUL, Aug 13 — A proud revelation about four generations of doctors has plunged rising South Korean actress Ahn Ha-young, known mononymously as Ha Young, into controversy — just as she was enjoying one of the biggest breaks of her career.
The actress, who stars in Netflix Korea’s new romantic comedy Our Sticky Love, has faced mounting backlash after remarks about her distinguished medical family prompted scrutiny of her great-grandfather and his links to figures associated with Japan’s colonial rule of Korea.
The controversy has erupted just days before South Korea marks Liberation Day on August 15, commemorating the end of Japanese colonial rule in 1945.
According to The Korea Herald, the row began after comments Ha Young made about her family history resurfaced during promotions for Our Sticky Love, which premiered globally last week.
During an August 7 appearance on KBS variety programme Problem Child in House, Ha Young said her great-grandfather had opened a Western-style clinic in Hanyang, the former name for Seoul, and treated Emperor Gojong.
She added that her grandfather, father and older sister were doctors, making hers a four-generation family of physicians.
Although Ha Young did not name her great-grandfather, online speculation pointed to Ahn Sang-ho, a doctor who practised during Japan’s colonial rule of Korea.
Attention then turned to historical records showing his involvement with the Daejeong Friendship Association, a business organisation founded in 1916 and led by Min Yeong-gi, a known pro-Japanese collaborator.
The group also included figures linked to Japan’s colonial administration, among them Yi Wan-yong, one of the signatories of the 1905 Eulsa Treaty and the 1910 Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty.
The revelations triggered an immediate backlash.
Ha Young’s agency, Bistus Entertainment, initially rejected claims on Monday that Ahn Sang-ho had been a pro-Japanese collaborator, but reversed course the following day.
Further checks confirmed historical records identifying him as a council member of the Daejeong Friendship Association, prompting the agency to apologise for releasing its initial statement before carrying out sufficient verification.
The fallout has already begun affecting Ha Young’s career.
Press interviews with Ha Young and her Our Sticky Love co-star Jung Hae-in were cancelled, disrupting the drama’s promotional campaign, while her commercial prospects have also come under pressure.
Ha Young issued a public apology yesterday, saying she had been unaware of her ancestor’s past.
The timing is particularly damaging for the actress, who made her debut in 2019 and has largely appeared in supporting roles.
She has featured in hit dramas including The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call, Doona! and Teach You a Lesson, but Our Sticky Love marks one of her first major leading roles.
Experts told The Korea Herald, however, that the controversy may ultimately hinge less on Ha Young’s ancestry than on how she presented her family history.
“There were different degrees of collaboration with Japan during the colonial period,” said Lee Sung-min, an associate professor in the Department of Media Arts and Sciences at Korea National Open University.
While some figures may have had limited choices under colonial rule, Lee said others actively cooperated with the authorities.
“Ahn’s great-grandfather appears to fall closer to the latter category,” he said.
Pop culture critic Jung Duk-hyun said public reaction often depends on how descendants approach such family histories.
“People would be more uncomfortable not with the fact itself, but with how the descendants conduct themselves,” he said.
“Even if someone is a descendant, if they have a negative view of their ancestor’s actions, they’re unlikely to go around highlighting or taking pride in that connection. They can instead take a more humble stance or show greater interest in and engagement with those historical issues. I don’t think the (Korean) public would necessarily criticise them if they responded in those kinds of ways.”
The row comes despite warming attitudes towards modern-day Japan among South Koreans.
A July 2026 Hankook Research survey put Japan’s favourability rating at 44.8 out of 100 among South Koreans, its highest level since the organisation began tracking perceptions in 2018.
But Jung said audiences still distinguish between embracing Japanese popular culture and unresolved historical grievances.
“Cultural exchange and consuming each other’s cultural content is essentially a matter of personal taste,” he said.
Lee added that attitudes towards descendants of collaborators may be becoming more nuanced, provided they clearly distance themselves from their ancestors’ actions.
“If someone can clearly distinguish between the two by saying, ‘What my parent did was wrong, but I am a different person,’ then people can see that person as someone who shares the same basic values,” he said.
“But in this case, that distinction wasn’t really made. There seemed to be a lack of awareness of what was wrong in the first place.”
For Ha Young, what should have been a career-making moment has instead become a reckoning with an ancestor’s past she says she did not know.