Professor Lee Hae-young of Hanshin University elaborates on the pro-Japanese activity and possible Nazi ties of South Korean composer and conductor Ahn Eak-tai
Over the past decade, the pro-Japanese actions of Ahn Eak-tai (1906–65) – the composer of South Korea’s national anthem, called “Aegukga” – have continued to come to light. But what if Ahn wasn’t just pro-Japanese but also had close ties to the Nazis?Lee Hae-young, a political scientist and professor of international relations at Hanshin University, has previously waded into tendentious topics including the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement, imported American beef, and the domestic film quota. This time, he delves into the past of composer and conductor Ahn Eak-tai.Lee’s book “The Ahn Eak-tai Case: A Study of the Symbol of the Anthem,” which was recently published by Samin, is a controversial work in which Lee marshals the latest documents, which he unearthed himself during eight years of research, to outline not only the pro-Japanese activities of “Ekitai Ahn” (Ahn’s Japanese name), but also his pro-Nazi activities. Lee sat down for an interview at the Hankyoreh office in Seoul’s Gongdeok neighborhood on Jan. 11.A classical music aficionado and audiophile, Lee studied abroad in Germany, which was Ahn’s main area of activity. Perhaps unsurprisingly for a controversy-courting political scientist, Lee takes a sharper stance than musicologists’ previous academic treatments of the Ahn issue.Ahn wasn’t a collaborator from the very beginning. At the premiere of “Aegukga” in the US in 1935, Ahn said, “I hope that this will go a long way toward helping the Korean national movement and our spirit of patriotism.”
