"I am a descendant of the pro-Japanese collaborator Lee In-jik." Singer Jeon Beom-seon's confession gains renewed attention amid controversy over actress Ha Young's family background [Star Issue]

*This content was translated by AI.

'Jeon Beom-seon, vocalist of the rock band Yangban-deul, has come under renewed scrutiny for confessing that he is a descendant of a pro-Japanese collaborator.

In April, Jeon appeared in a video titled "Healing a Divided Korean Society with History: The Descendant of a Pro-Japanese Collaborator" on the YouTube channel 'MP,' where he shared his personal story.

At that time, he mentioned his book, "Jeon Beom-seon's Korean History Therapy," stating, "I wanted to present historical figures like Yi Wan-yong, Ahn Jung-geun, and Seo Jae-pil—who are only vaguely known from history class—in a multi-layered and complex manner, unraveling each person's story as if telling a tale. I wanted to offer a new perspective on history." Jeon is also a prodigy who graduated early from an Ivy League university in the United States after attending Minjok Sagwan High School and completed his master's degree in history at Oxford University.

Jeon also revealed that he is a descendant of a pro-Japanese collaborator, saying, "It may not be a fundamental trauma, but my fundamental motivation for writing this book was that my grandfather was an enormous pro-Japanese collaborator."

He continued, "Yi Wan-yong spoke fluent English but could not speak Japanese. The person who served as his interpreter when he sold out the country was my grandfather. It was actually my grandfather, not Yi Wan-yong, who said the words that amounted to selling out the country (to the Japanese)."

The "grandfather" Jeon referred to is Lee In-jik, a writer of modern Korean novels and a pro-Japanese anti-nationalist. Jeon explained his family history: "When I learned about him in school textbooks, it said he was the first person to write a modern novel. He wrote the book 'Hyeol-ui Nu,' and he is my great-great-grandfather on my mother's side—my maternal grandmother's grandfather."

He added, "One day, my mother came into my room and said, 'I know you are involved in activities commemorating independence activists, but do you know what kind of family you come from?' I had never heard her say anything like that before. Since the time of my grandmother, people would hush up if we mentioned being descendants of Lee In-jik because they knew he was a pro-Japanese collaborator. My mother said it to make me aware of my lineage."

He said, "I was shocked. A descendant of a pro-Japanese collaborator that I had only heard about? Generally, people think that being a descendant of a pro-Japanese collaborator means you benefited and lived well. I asked my mother, 'Why isn't our family doing so well?' It turned out that Lee In-jik remarried a Japanese woman. Our family was abandoned."

He added, "(Lee In-jik) collaborated with Japan too blatantly."

The reason Jeon Beom-seon's confession has been brought back into the spotlight is due to recent controversy over actress Ha Young's great-great-grandfather's alleged pro-Japanese activities. On the 7th, Ha continued to make statements in various content, including a KBS 2TV variety program broadcast that day, emphasizing that her family has been a "fourth-generation doctor's family." Regarding her great-great-grandfather, she stated, "My great-great-grandfather was one of the first to open Jeon Mun (Rep.) in Hanyang. After studying medicine in Japan, he opened the first Yang (Rep.) in Hanyang and treated patients at Ko Jong (황제)."

Subsequently, online discussions emerged claiming that Ha's great-great-grandfather mentioned on the broadcast was Ahn Sang-ho. Ahn graduated from Tokyo Zaisei Medical School in Japan in 1902 and was the first Korean to obtain a Japanese medical license; he is also a figure suspected of pro-Japanese activities during the Japanese colonial period.

In fact, records surfaced showing that on December 10, 1918, Ahn Sang-ho stated through Maeil Sinbo, an institutional investor-backed newspaper, "I am like a Japanese person; I wear Japanese clothing and my wife is a Japanese woman. Our family's rules and diet are all Japanese-style. Unlike Koreans, we do not even have one set of traditional Korean robes." This revelation further fueled public outrage.

Ha Young's agency, Vistars Entertainment, initially took the position on the 10th that the controversy over her great-great-grandfather's pro-Japanese activities was "baseless," but a day later, on the 11th, it suddenly bowed its head, stating, "Upon further verification, we confirmed that there is indeed a record showing that Great-Grandfather Ahn Sang-ho's name appears on the list of councilors for the Daejeong Friendship Association in 1916."

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*This content was translated by AI.