New Records Surface: Ha Young’s Great-Grandfather Owned Massive Gunpo Land During Colonial Rule
Actress Ha Young’s great-grandfather, physician Ahn Sang Ho, owned a 2,700-pyeong (96,075 sq ft) rice field in the Gunpo area of Gyeonggi Province during the early years of Japanese colonial rule, newly uncovered records show.
Until now, Ahn Sang Ho’s land holdings had primarily been discussed in connection with large tracts of property in the Anyang area. This is the first time records have surfaced that specifically confirm his ownership of land in Gunpo, including the exact parcel number.
According to the land survey register for Geumjeong-ri, Nam-myeon, Siheung-gun, Gyeonggi Province, compiled during Japan’s Land Survey Project, Ahn Sang Ho’s Chinese-character name, “安商浩,” is listed as the owner of parcel No. 235. The land category is recorded as dap (畓), meaning a rice paddy. Its recorded area was “二七〇〇,” or 2,700 pyeong, equivalent to approximately 8,926 square meters.
Parcel No. 235 can also be identified on the original cadastral map from the period. Its location is particularly notable. The parcel was situated immediately next to the Gyeongbu Line railway, which was already in operation at the time. Under today’s administrative boundaries, the area corresponds to parts of Geumjeong-dong in Gunpo, Gyeonggi Province.
Tracing the old parcel number through modern registry records and maps leads to the area around today’s Geumjeong Interchange. The original parcel No. 235 was later divided into multiple lots. Among them, Geumjeong-dong 235-11 was acquired by agreement by Siheung-gun, with July 17, 1983, recorded as the date of acquisition. In 2002, it was merged into Geumjeong-dong 87-22, after which its individual registry was closed.
The current registry for 87-22 shows that land originating not only from 235-11 but also from former parcels 235-12, 235-14, and 235-15 was incorporated into the same property. Parcel 235-11 measured 1,503 square meters, 235-12 measured 864 square meters, 235-14 measured 123 square meters, and 235-15 measured 21 square meters. All of these parcels were eventually incorporated into road property.
The parcels were acquired by agreement by Siheung-gun in succession in 1983. Parcels 235-14 and 235-15 were acquired that July, while 235-12 was acquired in September. Another successor parcel, 235-18, was acquired by the state in 1986 under a procedure for the negotiated acquisition of land for public use. Its managing authority was the Korean National Railroad Administration. The parcel is now recorded as 942 square meters of railway property.
On present-day maps, 87-22, into which 235-11 and the other parcels were merged, lies within the road area around Geumjeong Interchange. Its location also corresponds with the position of parcel No. 235 beside the Gyeongbu Line on the Japanese-era cadastral map.
However, the computerized registry records currently available begin with the acquisitions by Siheung-gun and the state in the 1980s. It has not been possible to establish whether the original parcel No. 235 was later inherited by Ahn Sang Ho’s family or transferred to a third party in the intervening years. There is therefore no basis to conclude that Ahn’s descendants received compensation when the land was acquired by agreement in 1983.
Ahn Sang Ho appears to have owned more than just rice paddies in the area.
On October 8, 1926, the Dong-A Ilbo published an article titled “Japanese Forest Keeper Owned by Ahn Sang Ho Killed.” According to the report, a Japanese forest keeper who had guarded a mountain owned by Ahn Sang Ho for 17 years was murdered while going to supervise timber workers. The newspaper raised the possibility that the killing was motivated by a personal grudge and reported that a judge had rushed to the scene.
If the 17-year employment period is counted backward, the forest keeper appears to have begun managing Ahn Sang Ho’s forest land around 1909.
This record is separate from the newly identified parcel in Geumjeong-ri, and there is no evidence that the forest land was the same property as the 2,700-pyeong rice field. Nevertheless, it suggests that Ahn Sang Ho possessed substantial real estate in the Gunpo and Anyang areas beyond the newly documented tract.
Taken together with the 2,700-pyeong rice field near Gunpo Station and the large properties he later owned around Anyang Station, the records provide a clearer picture of how Ahn Sang Ho accumulated property along the transportation corridor connecting Gunpo and Anyang.
A Pattern of Strategic Wealth Accumulation
The newly discovered Gunpo property is particularly significant because it indicates that Ahn Sang Ho already possessed a considerable amount of land before he became widely known as a major landowner in Anyang.
Ahn studied medicine in Japan before returning to Korea and operating a medical practice in Jongno, Seoul, where he accumulated wealth. Newspapers published shortly after his death described him as an extremely wealthy man possessing thousands of seok of wealth.
Another notable aspect of Ahn Sang Ho’s wealth is the location of both his business and property.
The Gunpo parcel newly identified in this investigation was likewise located beside the Gyeongbu Line railway. Anyang, where Ahn later became known for owning extensive amounts of land, also grew around Anyang Station on the same railway line.
In Seoul, he operated a medical practice on a major commercial thoroughfare. In Gunpo, he owned a 2,700-pyeong rice field beside a major railway. In Anyang, he eventually became the owner of large tracts of land, including property around the railway station.
In modern terms, major roads and railway-centered areas repeatedly appear in the story of Ahn Sang Ho’s professional and property holdings.
This alone does not establish that Ahn deliberately purchased land in anticipation of rising property values caused by railway or road development, nor does it prove that he engaged in land speculation. The actual purchase dates, prices, and circumstances surrounding his acquisitions have not been fully established.
However, the records do suggest that Ahn had considerable financial acumen when it came to converting income from his medical career into other assets, including land. His later reputation as an immensely wealthy man appears to have been closely connected to this broader accumulation of property and wealth.
There are also historical records of Ahn Sang Ho becoming embroiled in a land dispute.
On December 28, 1923, the Dong-A Ilbo reported that a lawsuit had been filed against Ahn seeking cancellation of a land-sale certification involving property in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. The plaintiff, Park Seung Hak, claimed that while he was away, Ahn had threatened his mother and arranged for official certification as though the land had been legitimately sold to him. It is not known what final ruling the court reached.
Until now, accounts of Ahn Sang Ho’s real estate holdings have largely focused on Anyang. He was said to have owned large tracts around Anyang’s old market and Nambu Market areas, and after his death, his son Ahn Jung Ho and other family members reportedly donated portions of the family’s land to schools and social facilities.
The newly confirmed 2,700-pyeong rice field in Gunpo provides another clue to Ahn Sang Ho’s earlier accumulation of wealth. Its location beside the Gyeongbu Line is particularly significant when viewed alongside his clinic on central Jongno and his later large-scale property holdings around Anyang Station.
At minimum, the records show that major transportation and commercial hubs repeatedly intersected with Ahn Sang Ho’s professional activities and property holdings. The discovery therefore suggests that his rise as a major landowner in Anyang may have begun earlier and extended across a much wider area than previously documented.
Why This Discovery Deepens Ha Young’s Ongoing Controversy
The discovery comes at a particularly sensitive moment for Ha Young, whose family history has been under intense scrutiny following revelations about Ahn Sang Ho’s activities during Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule.
The controversy began after Ha Young appeared on KBS2’s ‘Problem Child in House’ on August 7 and spoke proudly about her four-generation medical family. She described her great-grandfather as a doctor who had studied Western medicine in Japan, opened a Western medical clinic in Hanyang, and treated Emperor Gojong. Her comments drew renewed attention to the identity and history of the ancestor she was discussing.
Ahn Sang Ho was subsequently identified as the great-grandfather in question. Historical records show that he was listed as a council member of the Daejeong Friendship Association in 1916, an organization associated with prominent pro-Japanese figures of the colonial period, including Lee Wan Yong and other collaborators. The controversy intensified further after records and contemporary reporting surfaced concerning Ahn’s close identification with Japanese colonial assimilation policies.
Ha Young’s agency initially described the allegations as “groundless.” Within a day, however, the agency reversed course, confirming that records did exist showing Ahn Sang Ho as a member of the organization in 1916 and apologizing for having dismissed the allegations without sufficient verification.
On August 12, Ha Young issued a handwritten apology of her own. She said that she had previously known only fragments of her great-grandfather’s life through family stories and acknowledged that, in her ignorance, she had spoken about him as a source of family pride without properly understanding the history of the Japanese colonial period. She also said that she personally researched the historical records after the controversy emerged and learned about his pro-Japanese activities.
That perceived lack of awareness is one reason the reaction in South Korea has been especially severe. Korean commentators have not simply focused on the actions of an ancestor who died nearly a century ago. Much of the anger has centered on the contrast between Ha Young’s public pride in her family’s prestigious medical lineage and the historical record that subsequently emerged about her great-grandfather. Historian Bae Ki Sung also criticized the way she discussed her family history publicly, arguing that someone of her generation should have been more aware of the historical context surrounding such a prominent family legacy.
The controversy has also touched a much deeper and longstanding Korean grievance over the unequal legacies of pro-Japanese collaborators and independence activists.
For many South Koreans, the issue is not simply that descendants should be blamed for crimes they did not commit. Rather, it raises the question of whether wealth, property, and social status accumulated during the colonial period continued to benefit later generations while families who sacrificed their fortunes for the independence movement were left struggling.
There is substantial historical evidence for that broader disparity. The Korea Times has documented cases of descendants of independence activists who lost family wealth because their relatives devoted themselves to the independence movement, with some descendants later growing up in severe poverty. One descendant interviewed by the paper said her family had once been wealthy but fell into poverty after her great-grandfather chose to fight for Korean independence.
The South Korean government itself has continued to acknowledge economic hardship among descendants of independence activists. In May 2026, the government approved an expansion of compensation eligibility that is expected to add more than 2,300 descendants to the program, while Seoul has separately operated scholarship programs for later-generation descendants who have fallen outside traditional veterans’ benefits.
At the same time, the government continues to pursue property and proceeds believed to have originated from pro-Japanese collaboration. In 2026, the Ministry of Justice won a case seeking the return of proceeds from property held by descendants of a designated pro-Japanese collaborator, and it has filed additional lawsuits involving land held by descendants of other collaborators.
That history explains why the Korean expression that “independence activists’ descendants suffered while pro-Japanese collaborators’ descendants prospered” continues to resonate. It would be too broad to claim that every descendant of a collaborator is wealthy or that every descendant of an independence activist is poor. But the underlying historical inequality is well documented, and the subject remains politically and emotionally charged in South Korea.
The newly discovered Gunpo land record is significant in this context because it adds another concrete piece of evidence to the picture of Ahn Sang Ho as a man who accumulated substantial property during the colonial era. It does not, by itself, prove that the 2,700-pyeong parcel was obtained through pro-Japanese activity, nor does it establish that Ha Young or her immediate family currently benefit directly from this particular property. The available modern registry records do not establish how the parcel changed hands between Ahn’s ownership and its eventual acquisition by Siheung-gun and the state.
It is also important to distinguish historical fact from the highly charged language often used in the public debate. In South Korea, pro-Japanese collaborators are sometimes described colloquially as people who “sold the country to Japan,” reflecting the profound resentment toward those who assisted or accommodated the colonial regime. Ahn Sang Ho’s documented role, however, should be described more precisely: he was associated with a pro-Japanese organization and was publicly presented in colonial-era materials in ways that aligned with Japan’s assimilation policies. There is not enough evidence in the records presented here to say that he personally “sold Korea to Japan” or that his entire fortune was obtained through collaboration.
For Ha Young, that distinction has not eliminated the controversy. Her family history was presented publicly as a source of prestige, only for historical records to reveal a far more complicated and troubling legacy. The discovery of an additional 2,700-pyeong property near the Gyeongbu Line now provides a new, tangible piece of evidence about the scale of Ahn Sang Ho’s wealth and property holdings during the colonial period.
That is ultimately why the finding has become so significant: it does not merely add another parcel of land to Ahn Sang Ho’s biography. It potentially expands the historical picture of how early his wealth was established, how geographically extensive his property holdings were, and why the legacy of his family continues to provoke such a strong reaction in South Korea today.
So, what are your thoughts on this latest controversy? Let us know in the comment section!
