My father in law was born in 1930 in South Korean and as a child was stripped of his Korean name and heritage and customs because of the Japanese occupation! He had a Japanese name. Was forced to learned the culture and Japanese language and become basically Japanese. So many books out there about this time in history which was quite horrible. there are a lot of people out there in same boat.
True. I am half korean, Japanese. That's true. Despite korean japan have been mixed since the ancient times. (Chinese are very different from us by ethnicity, culture, language
Even after that, many koreans who were stuck in japan- had to blend in, and many zainichi are discriminated till this day. Either have to change their nationality to japanese or still face the discrimination.
@@111min5and Northern Chinese have the same ancestors as Koreans have. They had lived in Siberian area and the Lake Bikal. Then they had come down to Korean Peninsula and Manchuria.
Fred's grandfather didn't just "assume a Japanese identity." At that time, Korea was occupied by Japan and Koreans were forced to take Japanese names and Japanese nationalities. That is why some Koreans who immigrated to the US during the Japanese occupation of Korea ended up in internment camps during the Second World War because Americans assumed they were Japanese because of their nationalities. I wish they researched this a bit more.
Mr. Son Ki Jung and Mr. Nam Seung Ryong were the gold and bronz medalists of marathon of 1936 Berlin Olympic. They were Korean. But they were recorded as Japanese.😢😢😢😢😢
I'm actually asking... do you have any first-hand info on the situation? Or are you speaking in general? Because I think its unfair to expect these guys to lay out a full history of the Korea/Japan relationship in a 5 min video about discovering the ancestries of celebrities. And I'm speaking as a Korean-American who grew up with a grandmother who spent a good portion of her life in Japan, so...
Japanese forced Koreans to use "Japanese Names" during colonial rule. I am happy for Fred that he found his true roots. I am a Korean, and loved Freds work for a very long time. Welcome Home !
@@mylignjust because it was enacted into law in the 1940s does not mean it wasn't being practised or enforced without the legal backing during the 1930s. So it could still apply.
My Korean mother (born in 1943) had both a Japanese and Korean name due to the occupation. My grandmother’s second cousin competed in the 1936 Olympics under a Japanese name and under the Japan flag. I knew Fred was funny enough to be Korean, 😘.
@@mylign It more likely had to do with getting a job, period. Japanese attitudes towards Koreans in Japan (and just in general) were worse than American attitudes towards our own immigrants.
2:00 the famous Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa witnessed the devastation after the 1923 earthquake and the massacre of thousands of Koreans in its aftermath, and he never forgot the awful images. It resonated in his films which at times had vivid depictions of slaughter and heaps of corpses.
1923년 일본의 대지진 이후 일본은 내부의 문제를 외부로 돌리기위해 일본에 살던 한국인들이 우물에 독을 풀었다는 유언비어를 퍼트리고 평범한 옆집 아저씨같은 일본인들이 몰려나와 수 천명의 한국인들을 잔인하게 학살했고 지금까지도 사과나 반성을 하지 않고 제작년에 일본에 산사태가 일어났을 때도 한국인들이 우물에 독을 풀었다는 일본인들의 sns가 큰 이슈였다
2:00 It's '1923 Great Kantō earthquake', In order to deflect blame from the government for the devastation caused by the terrible natural disaster, the Japanese government demonized Koreans with false rumors and had crowds and police massacre Koreans en masse so that the public's anger would be directed at the innocent Koreans, not the government. Wikipedia has also documented the event on a page called 'Kantō Massacre.' In 2011, 88 years after that tragedy, another massive earthquake, '2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami' struck Tokyo, Japan. What happended this time? South Koreans voluntarily raised money and sent nearly $70 million in relief to Japan. And a popular Japanese newspaper wrote an article that cleverly excluded South Korea from the list of countries that had sent relief money, listing only other countries.
wow he literally is a product of history. tensions between korean and japan were perpetuated by japan colonizing korea in early 1900s. every korean family knows and talks about this because it eventually connects to the korean war and why we are seperated today.
So you’re saying everything in history makes us who we are, and we shouldn’t keep drawing lines and playing games of us versus them? You’re a great thinker. ❤
@@pherja I agree to a certain point. But each individual must be vetted properly and have a proper citizenship so that they are responsible to follow the laws of their land.
I feel SO HORRIBLE about what our people have done to your people. I am SO SORRY . . . ! ! ! 😭 Sometimes I hate being Japanese. Because Japan was like the Nazi Germany of East Asia. It enrages me!!! 😡
As an Asian, 21 seconds into this video when they showed a picture of his grandfather I could have told you he was Korean and saved everyone the time. Lol.
Fred Armisen must come to South Korea and can meet his Korean relatives because Koreans usually maintain their family registry very well and he can also put his name into his grand father's family registry. Not a joke!
In the original full length program they provide that information. I’m not 100%sure but I think his history goes back about 1000 years according to those registries.
That would be wonderful! In Chinese that's called 認祖歸宗 recognizing your ancestors and returning to your family. I am sure you have something similar in Korea.
@@be.ttubee Probably not, Park is the second most common family name in Korea after Kim. Korean clan names are usually tied to a city or region, it is my understanding that there are dozens of Kim clans, but I am most aware of Andong Kim. Lee is also very common, the last royal dynasty was Jeonju Lee. Fun fact, in the establishment of the Kim dynasty in North Korea, Kim Il Sung's administration is suspected of having made some ancestral family adjustments to link his clan (Jeonju Kim) to the Jeonju Lee clan to lend his reign legitimacy.
Korean conqerors established ancient Japanese kingdom calld Yamato and Nara and became the Japanese royal family. Similar to history of England.😅😅😅@dash-2112
Me too! I swear I always said he looks like he looks Korean mixed with German and more specifically he had a Korean dancer who took a Japanese identity look about him. I swear I said this!
The founder of Kyokushin Karate, Mas Oyama also changed his name around the same time. Mas Oyama's original name was Choi Yeong-eui. He was also Korean.
@@liriodendronlasianthus It's not true. There is some misinformation in your words. Zac Oyama is not the grandson of Matsudas Oyama. Zac is the son of Yasuhiko Oyama, who was a student of Matsudas Oyama. Yasuhiko Oyama is also Korean, and his Korean name is Jo Il-eon.
Matsudas Oyama (Korean name Choi Young-ui) was a dual citizen. He was also married twice. He had three daughters with a Japanese wife and three sons with a Korean wife. The eldest of Matsudas Oyama's three sons is an orthopedic surgeon, and the second son is a jiu-jitsu player and instructor.
Not only during the Japanese colonial period but during the three kingdoms period (when Korea was divided into three kingdoms: Shila, baekjae, and goguryeo) Shila united the three kingdoms and many baekjae people fled to Japan. Koreans taught Japanese how to farm. Even Japanese emperor admitted in 2001 that he has baekjae ancestry. Modern Japanese are a mix of ancestors who emigrated from Korea and China, jomon, and Ainu.
Fred, if you read a novel titled Pachinko, you'll learn a lot and gain deeper insights about things, especially if you are interested in knowing what happened.
His grandfather was a zainichi Korean. You can tell from a mile away 😂. It feels so great to resonate with this and to be proud of my korean roots despite my somewhat Japanese upbringing. While it was very hard finding my cultural identity as a half Korean American with zainichi Korean family, once I had learned more about Korea and embraced that side of myself, I became so much more at ease 😊
Japan's "ancestor" is "Korea".---Japan was one of the ancient kingdoms of Korea in the past. ""Korea was the "fatherland of Japan" that created today's Japan, which inherited the splendid Korean culture""---- John Carter Covell (1910-1996), a famous American scholar of Japanese ''Japan is an immoral child who raped his parent.'' A shocking word left in Japan just before the death of a world-renowned scholar--- ""If it wasn't for Korea, Japan wouldn't be on the map.""
Ethnic Korean Choo Sung-hoon was born in Japan, like his parents, grandparents, and great grandparents. Despite this, he was only given Japanese citizenship when it was required for the Olympics as he was the country's judo champion for his weight class and after changing his name to Yoshihiro Akiyama. You might know him as the MMA fighter Sexyama.
That’s human race history. As time strentched to thousands or millions years. All human came from the same and if it strentched to universe time. Omg 😱 we are one 😊
@@kang-heeellalee9862 lol what do you know about the universe and time? there are bloodlines with different DNA walking among us on this earth, but real history would go over your silly head.
I'm from the Marianas, which is now part of the US. My maternal grandmother's father immigrated here from Japan while the islands were still part of the Empire, and he had a Japanese name, but he was ethnically Korean. We don't know what his original Korean name was. He was "conscripted" as a child during the Empire's occupation of Korea and taken to Japan, where he was given to a family to be an "apprentice". (In other words, he was a child slave. It seems a lot of people nowadays aren't aware that Japan used to enslave people from neighboring countries.)
It’s because Japan has soft power and very good PR they don’t really like to talk about their floors they don’t even mention Pearl or what happened that led up to Hiroshima and Nagasaki
@@sheluvssmokedupeyes1I don't know about that. Japan makes a lot of products that people consume, same as US for many years but most people I know lump US,Japan and Germany together as Imperialist countries. I mean France and UK are bad but the other 3, wowzer
as an adopted kid, I feel vindicated seeing how people react when a small part of their family history is changed. For the first 24 years of my life, I had zero information about my ethnic background, it was extremely difficult to build a sense of self. When I finally got my adoption papers, it was the start of a long journey towards rebuilding myself. btw in some countries adoptees are still deprived of information regarding their background today! It is cruel and inhumane.
Feel so sorry for you... background and ethnicity form very base of mankind in general. That's why everyone is obsessed with that But your case is different. Hope you will find your link to somewhere
I think Prof. Gates is weirdly missing a huge chunk of the history. At that time, Japan had colonized Korea and Koreans were often forced to take Japanese names and give up their language and culture. I find it very unlikely this was a simple attempt at "passing." Had he been in Korea, that claim might be more likely, but to be in Japan, he would have had almost no choice, as far as I understand the history.
In fact, I had elderly EFL students in S. Korea in the 1990's who still spoke Japanese more fluently than they spoke Korean because they grew up in pre-WWII Korea.
Additionally, the fact his family was "upper class" would *strongly* suggest they had to assimilate into Japanese culture to maintain their wealth and status. I would go so far as to say loyalist Koreans then and now would have seen his family as collaborators. This really should have been explored further as it is an absolutely defining period in Korean history. Gates dismissing this as mere cultural "othering" is extremely problematic.
South Korea is overrated. It's a country you wanna visit but not live in. It's like an amusement park. It's fun if you visit it occasionally but if you stay there permanently, it becomes boring and you realize it's not really that fun.
To this day, many Koreans born and raised in Japan use the Japanese names. In Japan, being born doesn’t give you a citizenship, so they use their Korean names and passports when traveling abroad.
Zainichis' ancestors had Japanese citizenship taken away at the end of WWII. Many refused to naturalise because they thought they'd be succumbing to the systematised discrimination of ethnic Koreans in Japan.
It takes like 20 years, a friend of mine just got his citizenship. A lot of the koreans who have been there for a LONG time usually have it but it's notoriously difficult to get.
I remember in 80s, a friend of mine confessed that she was Korean. I didn’t know well enough about Koreans in Japan and discrimination associated with it, so I didn’t see her any differently. It seemed though, it apparently was a big deal to her, so I didn’t take it lightly. I don’t recall we learned much about other Asian histories in general.
That is completely irrelevant, because Fred's grandfather met Fred's father when Fred's father was an adult, in the 1960s or perhaps 1970s, judging by the photo, and the grandfather could have easily described his background at that time.
Japan was allied with Germany. To be fair to the Nazis (lol), while they persecuted Jews, Romani, and gay people, they had no problems with Muslims and Asians, they even looked to India as the root of their "Aryan" racial philosophy.
I am Korean. The funny thing is, after hearing that Fred was Japanese, I thought he might be Korean. Because he showed some of the personality traits that Koreans have. Welcom Fred.
A lot of Japanese artists and entertainers who are assumed to be Japanese are actually Koreans, as much as 7 million Koreans used to live in Japan during 1920s~1940s, many gone back to Korea and numbers of Koreans in Japan was around 2 million after 1945, this got further reduced after about 1 million believed to have converted to naturalized Japanese, many changed their names to Japanese names, and these 1 million left became the Zainichi Koreans (long term residents of Korean nationals of either North or South Korea), and now only about 600,000 Zainichi Koreans are still in Japan.
even now, a lots of Japanese movie stars and singers are Korean decendents, but they do not disclose this because as soon as they are say they are Korean, the whole nation would turn around and discriminate.
Back in his SNL days, I didn't "get" Fred Armisen. Now after watching every season of Portlandia several times, he's my favorite comedic actor ever. Just crazy talented. Also never swears, which I didn't notice for years
We couldn't agree more, Sharon! He is an incredible talent. We hope you enjoyed this segment of Finding Your Root featuring Fred Armisen. Thanks for stopping by!
He’s famous for lovebombing and then ghosting women in a toxic way before he got married too. Just Google it. It’s too bad that so many talented men treat women like garbage.
He is very talented and I love every show he's a part of, but it doesn't mean, necessarily, that he is a nice man. You never know the real personality through watching someone on stage.
His grandfather was Korean upper class and sent his children to study in Japan... so he was a collaborater? Wow, that's some crazy world history he now has to unpack.
No. Japan was annexed by Korea in 1870's. By the time The Pak family sent his grandfather to Japan, Koreans had been Japanese subjects for 50 years, It's the equivalent of a Filipino family sending their kids to the US to study in the 1930's.
@@danielfrancis3736 Korea was forcefully and wrongfully annexed by Japan in 1910. And even after the annexation treaty, there were independent fighters and collaborator.
He might not have been a direct collaborator with Japan persay and simply had class mobility from the pre-colonial Joseon era. But choosing to study in Japan definitely means he didn't particularly hold strong anti-colonial sentiments either.
@@danielfrancis3736 not that Wikipedia is always right or anything, but according to Wikipedia collaborators are most definitely a 20th century thing. The Japanese colonial period was about 1910-1945. They were even prosecuting them after South Korea went democratic in the 80s. It says they had to pass legislation in the early 21st century to protect them from further persecution.
I’m an adoptee, and would love to do this kind of thing someday. It was an open adoption so I know my biological parents, but the kicker is that my birthfather is *also* adopted! 😅
Hello Jem! We appreciate your interest in Ancestry and will be happy to provide some insights. We would love for you to be able to learn more about your biological family, including your father's ancestry. Taking a DNA test could be a good starting point. Ideally you want to test the closest living relative to the unknown connection, if your biological father would be able to participate. However, you would also carry half of his DNA, hence you could work from your own results. When you take an AncestryDNA test you will be matched with anyone else also taking part in the service that shares DNA with you, from close to very distant relatives. By reviewing and contacting your matches you may be able to connect with relatives on your biological father's side. We always want to be clear that there are no guarantees for what you may find as it depends on who else is taking part in the service, but we have the largest DNA database of this kind in the world and have helped many members locate previously unknown biological family. As a start we recommend reading through the support article 'Finding Biological Family' here: support.ancestry.com/s/article/Finding-Biological-Family. This RUclips video from Ancestry genealogist Crista Cowan may also provide some useful strategies: ruclips.net/video/MOHhxZN_GHA/видео.html If you have any questions or if we can be of further assistance, please don't hesitate to reach out again. We hope that this is helpful and wish you much success with your search!
On my father's side of the family, there's been extensive research of our family that goes back a long time, but the thing really intrigues me is that at a certain point, you just have "so and so: born ____ and died____". Nothing else unless they got married and had children, were baptized, etc. I long to know what these people were like and what kind of lives they lived.
I recently found out that I am 30% Korean and it blew my mind since I grew up thinking I am ½ Japanese and ½ Chinese. My mom took Ancestry too and she is 100% Japanese. Unfortunately my dad passed away so we will never know where my Korean comes from…but my guess is from my paternal grandfather who was adopted.
Hi, Michelle. Thanks for getting in touch. We can understand that you'd have some confusion about your results. We do have the ability to determine which side of the family your ethnicities come from. We have a couple of articles that we hope you'll find helpful. After reading the articles, please let us know if you have other questions. support.ancestry.com/s/article/Ethnicity-Inheritance?language=en_US support.ancestry.com/s/article/Unexpected-Ethnicity-Results?language=en_US
Not mentioning that Japan took control of Korea, and by the 1930's, Japan was expanding control of Korea and Manchuria, China? Korean weren't exactly treated well under Japanese rule in Korea or in Japan, which in earlier periods of Japanese history, craftsman from Korea & China were in Japan, settled, which there both Chinese and Korean features existed in Japanese in some parts of Japan. Features of Koreans, Chinese and Japanese have certain features, which they can look at the face/body and know if they look Korean, Japanese or Chinese. Changing the names of Koreans to Japanese, wasn't only due to looting, but might have been for discrimination of being Korean.
Their animosities between Japan - Korea - China went way back hundreds of years ago, during the Mongol Invasion. When it revealed the majority of soldiers among the Mongols was from Korea and China.
@@manchesterunitedno7 True - a lot of soldiers in the Mongol army were captured Korean and Chinese. But even before that time period pirates from Japan would frequently raid the Korean Peninsula. The animosity was triggered by those from the Japanese islands long before the Yuan Dynasty period. Korea as a unified nation (excluding its existence as a Mongol vassal state) never initiated invasion of the Japanese islands. Why? No need to. It had much fertile and better lands and as a land with small population it never fought an offensive war to gain territory without cause. 20th century history certainly increased Asia’s animosity towards Japan but truth is, Korea (and China for that matter) never fully trusted the Japanese islands throughout the periods of written history at least going back to the time of unified Korea.
Those scrappy Koreans were forever getting the heel of an oppressor's boot... and survived time and time again. And look at South Korea now. Is it a perfect country/society? Of corse not. But I am so proud of how far they have come in the past 71 years.
@theajane6444 Korea was actually pretty strong and economically stable duing majority of its history. Most people just remember the big events where they got invaded.
Yes until the 20th century. Korea was ravaged economically by colonialism, then WWII, then the Korean War, and then a brief moment during IMF. @@avocaza1393
친일파 집안일 확률이 컸던 부분이 친일본 제국주의자이자, 친나치 행보를 한 정황이 있죠. 그런데 잘 아시겠지만, 당시 연예인이나, 공무원은 모두 다 창씨 개명 뿐만이 아니라, 일본왕에게 충성서약도 하게 했기 때문에 가담 정도가 중요한 것이지, 단지 사인이 있다고 하여 친일파다, 혹은 쌀을 얻기 위해 공산당 가입했다고 하여 공산당이다라고 판단할 수는 없어요.
우리가 프랑스 같은 나라들처럼 친일파를 완전히 숙청시킨 것도 아니니 이런 논란도 있는 것일듯. 연좌제가 아니니 괜찮을까? 나라 팔아먹은 이완용이나 그런 놈들 후손들. 몰수된 땅들 반환소송 해대는 친일파 후손들은 죄가 없는걸까? 적어도 친일파였던 조상에 대한 부끄러움과 반성은 있어야지. 저 박영인도 일본으로 유학할 정도면 배고파서 창씨개명하고 빌붙을 건 아니었을 듯
Can I just highlight something for everyone... We were just reminded that the Japanese military, police, and vigilantes rounded up and murdered 6,000 Koreans only 100 years ago. But not only Koreans, they also murdered Chinese and Japanese who _looked_ Korean to them. They also used it as an excuse to murder Japanese citizens who opposed the government in power at the time. I just like to highlight very important topics that still have lasting impacts on our current climate.
Korea had been conquered by Japan. When I heard that he went to school in Japan, I immediately knew that his family was wealthy, because nobody else had that sort of opportunity. A lot of Koreans did hard labor in Japan, but they sure didn't become dancers! I'm glad Armisen has finally met his grandfather. I hope he goes to Korea to link with his family there.
yes, wealthy upper class people of Korea during occupation, sent their kids to Japan to study. I'm pretty sure many wealthy Indians (from India) sent their kids to UK to study, when India was colony of UK. same thing.
저의 할아버지는 일본에서 자리를 잡고 사업을 하셨던 분입니다. 가난한 사람들도 일본에 많이 이주하였고, 많진 않지만, 차별적인 대우에서도 소수의 사람들이 성공을 하였습니다. 덕분에 저의 아버지는 1960년대에 일본에서 유학을 했었죠. 꼭 부유한 사람만 일본에 유학보낸 것도 아닙니다. 당시 YMCA 자료에 따르면 대다수의 부유한 집안 사람들이 유학을 한 것은 사실이지만, 예전이나 지금이나 20% 내외의 예외는 있었던 법이죠.
apparently, he attended Tokyo Imperial University, which is the best university in Japan at the time, and still is. after graduating from that school, he was sent to Germany by Japanese governemnt, to study Dance under German master dancers.
I have the same guess since at the time the tension must be already high. Sending your son to supposedly hostile country is not something ordinary folk would do, lol
@@yothiga Well he says that the family is still a high ranking family so they likely weren't seen as such. Koreans tend to be very harsh about that even now. I think the family knew how to handle the politics of it all. Take my granddad for example, he was a hired mechanic by the Japanese when my country was occupied but he was also a spy sending messages to the American troops. There were many who did the same. Thankfully, he didn't get caught.
Possible. From the rest of the episode, his grandfather was in Germany in the 1930s and doing shows for the German soldiers in the field (basically equivalent to the USO) because he was spying on them for the Japanese.
Were the Yayoi, Koreans? 일본 야요이는 한국인이었나? Mitsu Hadeishi--Principal Architect, Twin Health--Studied at Harvard University The short answer is: yes, the evidence is extremely strong that the Yayoi were Korean, and modern-day Japanese are a mix of mostly Yayoi and to a lesser extent indigenous Jomon genes. To be more precise: the Yayoi were almost certainly a people who originally (mostly) lived in South Korea, some of whom migrated to Kyushu by around 2200-2300 years ago, and the ones who stayed behind were absorbed into the countries of Goguryo, Baekje, and Silla to form a large proportion of what is now known as Korea. The primary reason I think this is by far the most likely explanation for the origins of the Yayoi comes from linguistic analysis: A recent study shows that the various dialects of Japanese originated from a common root language approximately 2,200 years ago. This fits perfectly with the archaeological evidence that the Yayoi culture first appeared in Kyushu at around the same time; the most logical explanation is the Yayoi people arrived from South Korea speaking proto-Japanese and they spread rapidly across the Japanese islands because the rice agriculture they used enabled their population to grow much more rapidly than the native Jomon peoples. (If the modern Japanese language had another origin - for example, if it had evolved from the Jomon language or came in via an earlier wave of migration, it would be unlikely that we would see Japanese dialects having a common root so close to the time we know the Yayoi arrived in Kyushu - the common origin would correspond to a much earlier date.) There is not much evidence of violent displacement of the Jomon; rather, it appears the Yayoi multiplied more rapidly due to better agricultural technology and ended up absorbing the Jomon people. Genetic analysis indicates the contribution of Yayoi to Japanese genetics is approximately 65 percent or more; but modern-day Japanese are descended by about 35 percent or less from the original Jomon people. This is why, although the Yayoi could easily be called Korean in origin, there are nevertheless many unique genetic characteristics in Japan: these likely come from the original Jomon people who lived in Japan for at least 12,000 years prior to the arrival of the Yayoi. Nevertheless what we call modern Japanese culture clearly arrived with the Yayoi, including the language. As a Japanese-American, I find it bizarre the extent to which right-wing Japanese want to believe that Japanese are not partly descended from Koreans or indebted to Koreans for our culture. Growing up in the US, I think I have a more objective attitude about all this, and just want to see where the evidence takes us. Of course, the Yayoi were not the only ancestors of modern-day Korea; it’s more accurate to say the Yayoi were a major population that contributed to become modern-day Koreans, and are likely to be most closely related to Koreans whose ancestors come primarily from the southern part of Korea. In terms of the language: the fact that Japanese originated with a single common root language approximately 2,200 years ago to me is by far the strongest evidence it must have come in from Korea with the Yayoi, but the only reason it didn’t survive on the peninsula is the Silla language, which became modern-day Korean, eventually displaced proto-Japanese in South Korea. However, there is evidence the language spoken in Goguryeo had many proto-Japanese components, because of a phonetic record of Goguryeo place names about half of which show Japonic words or elements. Some have speculated that the Goguryeo language was the precursor to modern-day Japanese, but other linguists believe that the more likely explanation is the proto-Japanese words found in Goguryeo were imported from a previously existing proto-Japanese language in South Korea. As for Baekje there has been speculation they spoke two languages; one of them might well have been proto-Japanese; since Goguryeo and Baekje were closely related it makes sense both countries may have had proto-Japanese words. I believe the hypothesis that the reason there were Japanese influences in South Korea is that somehow Japanese came to South Korea from the Japanese islands makes little sense. The Jomon lived in Japan prior to the Yayoi arrival and they were hunter-gatherers. They were successful as hunter-gatherers go, but they were highly unlikely to be engaging in any territorial expansion. More importantly however the timing of the origin of the Japanese language on the islands means it came in exactly when Yayoi appeared in Kyushu: so the obvious conclusion is Yayoi culture originated on the mainland and came to Japan at that time, and they spoke an ancient form of Japanese, not the other way around. (Interesting addendum: a fascinating detailed new reconstruction of the language spoken by the Yamatai which comes to similar conclusions). There are so many other clues: despite the fact that Japanese and modern-day Korean don’t have a lot of common words, the grammar is nearly identical. The form of subject-particle-object-particle-verb is precisely the same in the two languages and this is an extremely rare pattern among world languages. It seems likely to me the Yayoi language originated from a branch off from the Silla and other Korean peoples with an origin perhaps a couple thousand years before the Yayoi came to Japan, and the Yayoi people developed first in South Korea. (New additions: Fascinating new work by Max Planck scholar Martine Robbeets indicates via an impressive computational linguistics analysis and a novel construction of a proposed proto-Transeurasian language with archaeological confirmation that shows strong evidence for a genetic link between Korean and Japanese as well links with other language families such as Mongolic and others - and provides an explanation for Austronesian influence in Japanese. Also, more evidence proto-Japanese was spoken in Korea and that Korean and Japanese are likely descended from an even older shared root language - h/t to Ed Kim for sharing this, and another interesting article written by a translator familiar with both Japanese and Korean, also pointing out the many similarities, down to fine details, between the grammar of the languages.) One other interesting historical fact is Japan in ancient times was closely allied with the Baekje Kingdom. We helped them in multiple wars spanning the 4th to the 7th centuries and who knows, possibly before. Japan sent tens of thousands of troops to defend Baekje; after Baekje was defeated by Silla many of their princes fled to Japan and intermarried with Japanese nobility. Why would they do this? Why did we feel so close to them? Could it be that back then we still remembered we originally came from Korea? Is it possible that proto-Japanese was actually still one of the languages spoken in Baekje at the time? We treated them like brothers, like family. Yet today, right-wing Japanese want to erase those close relations, or claim that somehow Korea was a territory of Japan rather than the likely truth that the Yayoi culture, and Japanese language, originated there and mixed with Jomon to become Japan as we know it today. I see a Japanese right-winger wrote a very emotional post claiming there is no possibility Japan owes anything significant to Korea for its culture or genetic heritage. To this I just have to say: do you realize you may be insulting our own ancestors who made the difficult journey from Korea to Japan to start a new life and build a civilization which later became one of the great civilizations of the world? Why be so insistent that Japanese culture and people descended only from the Jomon? Sure: the Jomon are ALSO our ancestors, which explains why modern Japanese have unique genetic traits distinct from Koreans: but Japanese culture and language as we know it today almost certainly began in South Korea and likely survived in some form for hundreds of years there until it was finally subsumed by the Silla invasion. Investigations of ancient Japanese Imperial tombs show there were Korean swords and inscriptions found there. As someone who can trace his own lineage back to the Minamoto/Genji clan I find it inspiring to understand the true history of our culture and people. I find the desire on the part of right wingers in Japan to deny our close connection to Korea to be sad, irrational, and ultimately tragic: I believe we once remembered that our ancestors came from Korea to settle on the islands and intermarry with the Jomon, but today we have forgotten that history and some small-minded people denigrate our Korean brothers today. That is a travesty in my mind, as well as simply irrational and inconsistent with the linguistic, archeological, and genetic evidence.
야요이인이 4세기쯤 규슈에서 급증했다는 연구 결과는 일본인 교수가 예전에 밝힌적이 있습니다.가야, 백제, 신라, 고구려에서 다 건너 갔습니다. 한국인과 유전적으로 가장 유사한 지역은 현대 중국 동북부(과거 중국 북부는 한족이 살던 지역이 아니라 북방민족이 따로 있었음)와 일본입니다.
한국인으로서 그의 할아버지가 한국인이라고 밝혀졌을 때 반갑기도 했고, 그가 결국 독일로 건너가 친나치 행보를 했음을 알았을 때는 기분이 묘했습니다. 내 증조할아버지(친할아버지의 아버지)는 독립운동가셨고 형무소에 몇 년 갇혀계시다 출소한 후 가난하게 사시다 돌아가셨습니다. 증조할아버지의 공로를 인정받아 우리 남매는 대학 등록금을 덜 냅니다. 굉장히 모순적인 점이 하나 있는데, 내 또다른 증조할아버지(내 친할머니의 아버지)는 일제강점기의 순사였습니다. 그리고 내 친할머니의 사촌들 중 하나 아주아주 높은 고위 공무원직을 지내셨었습니다.
@@M_SC Yes! He was, for Japan. Even though Japan & Germany were both Axis Powers, Japan wanted to know what Germany may, or may not, be doing that wasn’t necessarily disclosed.
I didn't get a Finding Your Roots treatment, but through Ancestry I did learn that my very-very-very-Scottish grandmother was in fact not Scottish but genetically, pure Irish. Nearest I can tell, my great Grandparents left Ireland in the 1920's for Scotland likely due to the Irish Civil War and so she was raised in Scotland. So for almost my entire life I said I was part Scottish when in fact I am Irish. This was also confirmed by an Ancestry DNA test. Incredible!
I thought Irish and Scottish were related people. they were pushed out by Romans, who eventually left, then came Anglo-Saxon invaders, who in turn were pushed out by Danish and Normans.
Well it is quite normal for many japanese not to know that they are actually Korean. After the war many Koreans would settle in Japan changing identity and taking on Japanese names. Their children born in Japan would have Japanese names, but always having some root in Korea. Many of my friends are quarter Korean while born Japanese.
"Settle" is a very whitewashed term for what the history was. Koreans in Japan feared for their lives and basic survival - and hid their identities. It's not like an immigrant moving to the USA today and changing their name from Sun Tak to Susan to blend in.
As a Korean... this story sounds a bit suspicious. During the era of japanese colonization, most of Korean upper class people were pro-Japan being dedicated to empire, who were considered as traitors from Koreans. And, almost all Koreans who were forced to change their names into japanese way returned their names back into Korean when Korea was independent. The facts that his grandfather was in upper class rich family during the colonial era, and went to Tokyo and Germany for stury(which means volentary moving), and the facts that he did not change his name back to Korean way even after the independence, and he did not tell his son and grandson about his original ethnicity eventhough Koreans usually have very strong affection for their roots, makes me feel that his grandfather might be one of those 'traitors' who worked for Japanese empire and did many horrible things to Korean people. However, we cannot figure out exact truth...
True. But not all the rich upper class Koreans wete traitors. Many Independence movements, protests and battles were organized by Yangbans as well. The first Manse movement was also held in Tokyo by Koreans that had sparked March 1st movement in Korea. Many elites who studied abroad also organized Korean Independence army in the US, Manchuria and Shanghai. Many rich Yangbans also traveled to Europe and America to appeal to the international committee for the independence of Korea as well. But his grandpa seem pretty SUS....
이거 좀 말이 안됩니다. 당시 지배계층이나 공무원들은 창씨개명 외에도 천황에 대한 충성서약을 강요받았습니다. 이건 삼성, LG 선대 회장의 조상들 같은 그 당시에도 부유층 집안 자제도 마찬가지였습니다. 그들은 일제의 요구를 들어주어야만 했고, 그렇다고 하여 삼성, LG의 선대 창업자들을 보고 일제에 협력했고, 그들의 자녀들도 일본의 명문 대학교까지 졸업시켰다고 하여 스파이라고 하진 않습니다. 저희 외할아버지는 공무원이었고, 당연히 일제에 협력해야 하니 충성서약도 했지만, 독립운동가들에게 자금을 전달하여 공무원직 박탈 및 고문까지 받아, 등을 인두로 짖은 자국이 있었지만, 외할아버지가 부유한 집안이었고, 공무원직 박탈당한 후에도 주유소까지 운영했기 때문에 나름대로 좋은 생활을 계속 유지했습니다. 다른 비유를 들면, 6.25 전쟁때 북한이 서울 함락 시 북한 공산당에 가입을 종용했었고, 이에 응한 사람들만 생명을 유지할 수 있는 곡식을 주었던 상황을 떠올리면 됩니다. 공산당원 가입명부에 서명했다고 하여, 빨갱이로 몰고 다시 남한이 서울을 수복했을때 그 명단을 보고 집단 학살을 시킨 것은 유명한 역사적 사실이잖아요.
@@유니-k7z모든 지배계층이 친일파는 아니였지만 상당수의 지배계층이 친일파였다고봐도 무방하죠 거기다 저 할아버지라는 사람은 굉장히 의문이에요 조선이 억압받던 시절에 자발적으로 일본에 가서 일본인이 되었고 나치 스파이 노릇까지 함 미국에서도 살다가 노년엔 일본에 돌아가서 일본인으로 죽음 친일파는 맞아요
I’d love to have this done to my father. He was born in Seoul at the outbreak of the war to young a Korean mother and a foreigner we think was an American. We know our Korean family ran an opera in Seoul up until the war, and we know the man was American and had ashkenazi dna, but that is all we know. The war destroyed any connection we have to the Korean side and to the American.
As a Korean, I really appreciate that this video captures the historical conflict between Korea and Japan. The Japanese tortured, raped, and mistreated Koreans during that time, and it remains to a big scar for Koreans. The story in video seems like ‘창씨개명’ which means ‘Changing the name into Japanese’. To change the name to Japanese was to deny and uproot hundred years of Korean history. If Koreans deny to change their names, they penalized Koreans. There’s a lot of stories during the Japanese colonial era. I hope more and more people interested and informed about this. And I hope that Japan will apologize to Korea properly, instead of denying their faults and history.
This was during the Japanese occupation of Korea, so there were a lot of Koreans going to Japan for one reason or another. My own maternal grandfather also studied university in Japan. And on a more serious note, Fred Armisen, as a Korean, I welcome you to the fold.
If you learn why his grandfather had to hide his homeland, you'll come to understand the tragic history between Korea and Japan-the painful reality Koreans faced under Japanese rule.
My first thought was, someone in his family knew his grandfather was Korean, so why didn't they tell him? But then I remembered that families often keep secrets from family members. Not exactly sure why, but they do. I was middle-aged when I found out my father has an older half-sister and I have half-cousins (?). Btw, I met them and they were nice, but in no way did it feel like a family reunion.
@@jakefield true! Cause they believe they are superior. And also hk, Singaporean as well. Despite they are border to South asia and they look identical to Vietnamese, they are keep denying that they are similar to them. Why? Hab tribe chinese think they are superior. Lol Rather, they are keep insisting koreans whose neighbor is russia, extremely cold, are south asians. So Koreans fair skin, high nose, tall height are all obtained by plastic surgery
Japanese did not use shoes until the 5th century and were a pirate people until they met Portuguese merchants. If you look at Korean and Chinese history books, there is a lot about the barbarism of the Japanese.
During Japanese rule it was made mandatory to change Korean names to Japanese names. My grandma (b.1926) used a Japanese name until the Korean independence. All Korean names were restored after ww2.
The newspaper clipping at 1:04 says "original name Park Young-in" in the original Japanese. So despite his new name, any of his acquaintances in the dance world would have known that he was ethnic Korean.
Ah the history between Korea and Japan. We all learn it in Korea, and as soon as I saw the title, I knew what it meant. It's very tragic and I hope we shed light on the subject more often.
Grandfather went to England, Germany, and even Japan spy, he is Korean, and he is on the side of Japan, and he is the one who suffered the Korean people Don't ever call grandfather Fred Korean
Not much hope for the older generations but I love that the younger generation does not allow a terrible past dictate they way they view and interact amongst Koreans and Japanese. its long over due for the 2 nations to move past the bad history and start a better one. Welcome to the KBBQ Fred. You're family now brother.
Misleading. The Japanese are a mix, but so are Koreans, and the largest contributors to the Japanese gene pool were Koreans from the mainland who slowly over time displaced the original inhabitants. This, of course, is rather controversial, though the current emperor recognizes his Korean roots.
What a fascinating story! I’m so happy for Fred that he was able to learn about his genuine ethnic background and hope that he’s able to connect with his Korean relations. I had my own wowza Ancestry moment, while researching my Irish born great-great grandmother, Martha. She was born in 1841, just prior to the famine that wasn’t an actual famine. The Great Hunger, An Gorta Mor in Irish, occurred not only because of blight ruining the potato crops which were the main sustenance for the Irish, but also because the Irish were being forced out of their homes by the ruling British. Martha crossed the Atlantic in an overcrowded and disease ridden coffin ship, so named because so many people died during the crossing. She ended up in Quebec City, which was basically a “dumping grounds” for the coffin ships which all other ports refused to accept the passengers, including U.S. cities. The wowza moment occurred when Martha, an Irish Catholic, married James, a Church of England widower with a son, in an Anglican cathedral! It’s like a cat and a dog getting married, lol! Martha and James had ten children, six of whom lived to adulthood. On census listings, Martha continued to list herself as Catholic and ALL of the children were listed as Catholic! I would love to know the backstory behind how this all happened! Martha must’ve been one very strong-willed woman!
Thank you for this video. I do wish they - Gates Jr., the producers and researchers - did a little better job of explaining the history of Koreans under Japanese colonial rule. The earthquake incident was not an isolated incident - Koreans had no rights during that time and couldn't become citizens even if they were born there. MANY Koreans changed their names to Japanese names and hid their Korean identities in order to survive, like Armisen's grandfather. "Pachinko" is a phenomenal book (fiction)/TV series that depicts what happened during that period. Learning things like this can help fill us with gratitude about what our ancestors endured for us to be here today.
@@davidjacobs8558 Not only in the 60s and 70s, but you can find many "Japanese" actors, singers and athletes in the 90s and even in the 21st that were actually Korean but had to be in disguise due to severe discrimination. The list of famous Zainichi entertainers in Japan is pretty long. I heard some of them were canceled in the middle of a long drama series due to their ethnicity.
"[Fred Armisen] discovers he is actually Korean" sounds like the premise of a Portlandia sketch
I was absolutely prepared for an SNL sketch until I saw the channel name
Lol i also double-checked the channel name cause i was certain this was going to be a parody
And then they would start a woman-owned artisanal kimchi business
I was 100% ready for this to be a parody.
bro i clicked on this bc i thought it wasss
My father in law was born in 1930 in South Korean and as a child was stripped of his Korean name and heritage and customs because of the Japanese occupation! He had a Japanese name. Was forced to learned the culture and Japanese language and become basically Japanese. So many books out there about this time in history which was quite horrible. there are a lot of people out there in same boat.
True. I am half korean, Japanese. That's true. Despite korean japan have been mixed since the ancient times. (Chinese are very different from us by ethnicity, culture, language
Even after that, many koreans who were stuck in japan- had to blend in, and many zainichi are discriminated till this day. Either have to change their nationality to japanese or still face the discrimination.
@@111min5not mixed, Japanese ppl have been mixed between ancient Koreans and small number of Inoo people. Koreans are Koreans,
@@111min5and Northern Chinese have the same ancestors as Koreans have. They had lived in Siberian area and the Lake Bikal. Then they had come down to Korean Peninsula and Manchuria.
@@SuperGentlelover you may watch pachinko
The history between Korea and Japan is intense and worth learning.
No joke, man.
Turtle ships FTW!
3:24 *YOU LIKE KIMCHEE*
like many neighbors in human history.
surprised that young people actually get along g great
Fred's grandfather didn't just "assume a Japanese identity." At that time, Korea was occupied by Japan and Koreans were forced to take Japanese names and Japanese nationalities. That is why some Koreans who immigrated to the US during the Japanese occupation of Korea ended up in internment camps during the Second World War because Americans assumed they were Japanese because of their nationalities. I wish they researched this a bit more.
Yeh that is very important info. In fairness though they do pretty good research on the whole
Mr. Son Ki Jung and Mr. Nam Seung Ryong were the gold and bronz medalists of marathon of 1936 Berlin Olympic. They were Korean. But they were recorded as Japanese.😢😢😢😢😢
@PatrickByrne-e5v because korea is one of few ancient civilizations, its family record is very well preserved.
I'm actually asking... do you have any first-hand info on the situation? Or are you speaking in general? Because I think its unfair to expect these guys to lay out a full history of the Korea/Japan relationship in a 5 min video about discovering the ancestries of celebrities. And I'm speaking as a Korean-American who grew up with a grandmother who spent a good portion of her life in Japan, so...
Important point. Thanks for making it.
Japanese forced Koreans to use "Japanese Names" during colonial rule. I am happy for Fred that he found his true roots.
I am a Korean, and loved Freds work for a very long time. Welcome Home !
this is making me emotional for some reason, that "welcome home" is so sweet 😭
Forcing name changes (創氏改名・창씨개명・そうしかいめい) was enacted in 1940, so Fred's grandfather's case does not apply. It had to do with getting a stage name.
@@mylignjust because it was enacted into law in the 1940s does not mean it wasn't being practised or enforced without the legal backing during the 1930s. So it could still apply.
My Korean mother (born in 1943) had both a Japanese and Korean name due to the occupation. My grandmother’s second cousin competed in the 1936 Olympics under a Japanese name and under the Japan flag. I knew Fred was funny enough to be Korean, 😘.
@@mylign It more likely had to do with getting a job, period. Japanese attitudes towards Koreans in Japan (and just in general) were worse than American attitudes towards our own immigrants.
2:00 the famous Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa witnessed the devastation after the 1923 earthquake and the massacre of thousands of Koreans in its aftermath, and he never forgot the awful images. It resonated in his films which at times had vivid depictions of slaughter and heaps of corpses.
And Japan still denies it was a widespread massacre.
More than 6,000 innocent Koreans living in Japan were murdered by Japanese in a week.😢😢😢😢😢
1923년 일본의 대지진 이후 일본은 내부의 문제를 외부로 돌리기위해 일본에 살던 한국인들이 우물에 독을 풀었다는 유언비어를 퍼트리고 평범한 옆집 아저씨같은 일본인들이 몰려나와 수 천명의 한국인들을 잔인하게 학살했고 지금까지도 사과나 반성을 하지 않고 제작년에 일본에 산사태가 일어났을 때도 한국인들이 우물에 독을 풀었다는 일본인들의 sns가 큰 이슈였다
@@davidk6269 Japanese are cruel..
2:00 It's '1923 Great Kantō earthquake', In order to deflect blame from the government for the devastation caused by the terrible natural disaster, the Japanese government demonized Koreans with false rumors and had crowds and police massacre Koreans en masse so that the public's anger would be directed at the innocent Koreans, not the government. Wikipedia has also documented the event on a page called 'Kantō Massacre.'
In 2011, 88 years after that tragedy, another massive earthquake, '2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami' struck Tokyo, Japan. What happended this time? South Koreans voluntarily raised money and sent nearly $70 million in relief to Japan. And a popular Japanese newspaper wrote an article that cleverly excluded South Korea from the list of countries that had sent relief money, listing only other countries.
wow he literally is a product of history. tensions between korean and japan were perpetuated by japan colonizing korea in early 1900s. every korean family knows and talks about this because it eventually connects to the korean war and why we are seperated today.
So you’re saying everything in history makes us who we are, and we shouldn’t keep drawing lines and playing games of us versus them? You’re a great thinker. ❤
Wow it’s almost like we’re all a product of history huh, that’s crazy
@@pherja I agree to a certain point. But each individual must be vetted properly and have a proper citizenship so that they are responsible to follow the laws of their land.
@@ededdandeddytv5164 lol u was ready for this huh
I feel SO HORRIBLE about what our people have done to your people. I am SO SORRY . . . ! ! ! 😭 Sometimes I hate being Japanese. Because Japan was like the Nazi Germany of East Asia. It enrages me!!! 😡
As an Asian, 21 seconds into this video when they showed a picture of his grandfather I could have told you he was Korean and saved everyone the time. Lol.
Same. I thought he looked mixed, and when I Googled it, I thought Japanese didn't fit.
Start a fiver as an alternate/cheaper option to acestry 😂
My husband is Korean and yes, his grandfather looks SO typically Korean.
This comment made me laugh so hard I almost peed
@@RogerCh888 😄
The Korean Delegation would like to pick, Fred Armisen
I second!
🤣 You beat me to the punch
😂😂
Perfect comment 😂
nah, japan can keep him
I recommend the book ‘Pachinko’…for anyone who hasn’t read it. It gives you an insight into the times.
Yes! I was just going to say!
Such a good book. The author is wonderful!
They also turned it into a TV series
Also a great series on Apple TV+
@@orchidpanda2253 I haven’t seen the series…but would like to. How does it compare to the book?
Fred Armisen must come to South Korea and can meet his Korean relatives because Koreans usually maintain their family registry very well and he can also put his name into his grand father's family registry. Not a joke!
In the original full length program they provide that information. I’m not 100%sure but I think his history goes back about 1000 years according to those registries.
That would be wonderful! In Chinese that's called 認祖歸宗 recognizing your ancestors and returning to your family. I am sure you have something similar in Korea.
@@catherineono3387 One of kings of Silla dynasty was "Park" and his must be a descendant of that Siila Dynasty Royal family.
@@catherineono3387yes that is true. This is the best finding your roots episode, its wild
@@be.ttubee Probably not, Park is the second most common family name in Korea after Kim. Korean clan names are usually tied to a city or region, it is my understanding that there are dozens of Kim clans, but I am most aware of Andong Kim.
Lee is also very common, the last royal dynasty was Jeonju Lee. Fun fact, in the establishment of the Kim dynasty in North Korea, Kim Il Sung's administration is suspected of having made some ancestral family adjustments to link his clan (Jeonju Kim) to the Jeonju Lee clan to lend his reign legitimacy.
My grandmother was the same. She was Korean but lived in Japan. She was given a Japanese name as a child but of course her real name was Korean.
Interesting.
There are so many Koreans who moved to Japan and became Japan from early in history, including possibly the Japanese royal family.
Korean conqerors established ancient Japanese kingdom calld Yamato and Nara and became the Japanese royal family. Similar to history of England.😅😅😅@dash-2112
@@Kenny-fh3om
this is a false history
Many famous celebrities and athletes in Japan are of Korean descent.. they had to suppress sharing any of that due to shame from the public there..
True. Cause Koreans are taller and better looking
I swear I used to say he looked mixed-Korean, and people told me he was part Japanese so I was like, "aah okay" - Some faces just look like family.
That's what we Black people say when we notice our own.
It's exactly what we say wven if they don't see in in themselves, we do. @@LilliLamour
Yes because someone a quarter Korean looks very different from someone who’s a quarter Japanese
Me too! I swear I always said he looks like he looks Korean mixed with German and more specifically he had a Korean dancer who took a Japanese identity look about him. I swear I said this!
Ok! Me, too! Lol.
The founder of Kyokushin Karate, Mas Oyama also changed his name around the same time. Mas Oyama's original name was Choi Yeong-eui. He was also Korean.
His grandson is comedian Zac Oyama
@@liriodendronlasianthusThat explains a lot about his "I got no sleep last night" sketch
@@liriodendronlasianthus
It's not true.
There is some misinformation in your words.
Zac Oyama is not the grandson of Matsudas Oyama.
Zac is the son of Yasuhiko Oyama, who was a student of Matsudas Oyama.
Yasuhiko Oyama is also Korean, and his Korean name is Jo Il-eon.
Matsudas Oyama (Korean name Choi Young-ui) was a dual citizen.
He was also married twice.
He had three daughters with a Japanese wife and three sons with a Korean wife.
The eldest of Matsudas Oyama's three sons is an orthopedic surgeon, and the second son is a jiu-jitsu player and instructor.
Even their Imperial family has Korean origins 😂
Not only during the Japanese colonial period but during the three kingdoms period (when Korea was divided into three kingdoms: Shila, baekjae, and goguryeo) Shila united the three kingdoms and many baekjae people fled to Japan. Koreans taught Japanese how to farm. Even Japanese emperor admitted in 2001 that he has baekjae ancestry. Modern Japanese are a mix of ancestors who emigrated from Korea and China, jomon, and Ainu.
@@실버블렛-g3j true
Fred, if you read a novel titled Pachinko, you'll learn a lot and gain deeper insights about things, especially if you are interested in knowing what happened.
His grandfather was a zainichi Korean. You can tell from a mile away 😂. It feels so great to resonate with this and to be proud of my korean roots despite my somewhat Japanese upbringing. While it was very hard finding my cultural identity as a half Korean American with zainichi Korean family, once I had learned more about Korea and embraced that side of myself, I became so much more at ease 😊
Japan's "ancestor" is "Korea".---Japan was one of the ancient kingdoms of Korea in the past.
""Korea was the "fatherland of Japan" that created today's Japan, which inherited the splendid Korean culture""----
John Carter Covell (1910-1996), a famous American scholar of Japanese
''Japan is an immoral child who raped his parent.''
A shocking word left in Japan just before the death of a world-renowned scholar---
""If it wasn't for Korea, Japan wouldn't be on the map.""
Ethnic Korean Choo Sung-hoon was born in Japan, like his parents, grandparents, and great grandparents. Despite this, he was only given Japanese citizenship when it was required for the Olympics as he was the country's judo champion for his weight class and after changing his name to Yoshihiro Akiyama. You might know him as the MMA fighter Sexyama.
One of the first dads from Return of Superman!
Also on season 1 of Physical 100
Sexyama....
Amazing physique and still a great MMA fighter at 48 years old with ONE Championship.
Read into the history of the Kingdom of Baekje and how the royal family of Japan has Korean ancestry.
That’s human race history. As time strentched to thousands or millions years. All human came from the same and if it strentched to universe time. Omg 😱 we are one 😊
@@kang-heeellalee9862 lol what do you know about the universe and time? there are bloodlines with different DNA walking among us on this earth, but real history would go over your silly head.
I'm from the Marianas, which is now part of the US. My maternal grandmother's father immigrated here from Japan while the islands were still part of the Empire, and he had a Japanese name, but he was ethnically Korean. We don't know what his original Korean name was. He was "conscripted" as a child during the Empire's occupation of Korea and taken to Japan, where he was given to a family to be an "apprentice". (In other words, he was a child slave. It seems a lot of people nowadays aren't aware that Japan used to enslave people from neighboring countries.)
It’s because Japan has soft power and very good PR they don’t really like to talk about their floors they don’t even mention Pearl or what happened that led up to Hiroshima and Nagasaki
@@sheluvssmokedupeyes1I don't know about that. Japan makes a lot of products that people consume, same as US for many years but most people I know lump US,Japan and Germany together as Imperialist countries. I mean France and UK are bad but the other 3, wowzer
as an adopted kid, I feel vindicated seeing how people react when a small part of their family history is changed. For the first 24 years of my life, I had zero information about my ethnic background, it was extremely difficult to build a sense of self. When I finally got my adoption papers, it was the start of a long journey towards rebuilding myself. btw in some countries adoptees are still deprived of information regarding their background today! It is cruel and inhumane.
Feel so sorry for you... background and ethnicity form very base of mankind in general. That's why everyone is obsessed with that
But your case is different. Hope you will find your link to somewhere
I think Prof. Gates is weirdly missing a huge chunk of the history. At that time, Japan had colonized Korea and Koreans were often forced to take Japanese names and give up their language and culture. I find it very unlikely this was a simple attempt at "passing." Had he been in Korea, that claim might be more likely, but to be in Japan, he would have had almost no choice, as far as I understand the history.
In fact, I had elderly EFL students in S. Korea in the 1990's who still spoke Japanese more fluently than they spoke Korean because they grew up in pre-WWII Korea.
Additionally, the fact his family was "upper class" would *strongly* suggest they had to assimilate into Japanese culture to maintain their wealth and status. I would go so far as to say loyalist Koreans then and now would have seen his family as collaborators.
This really should have been explored further as it is an absolutely defining period in Korean history. Gates dismissing this as mere cultural "othering" is extremely problematic.
Gates didn't want to stir the pot. These "woke" self-righteous troublemakers will protest anything and everything. It's pathetic
@@guytansbariva2295Woke, woke, woke…🤦♂️Jfc
@@asynchronicity Woke is ruining culture and society around the world. What's your problem? Lol 😆
Fred's personality honestly fits more with Korean culture than Japanese. He would love Seoul--best city on Earth.
ㅎㅎㅎ How could it be the best city on earth when it’s not even the best city in Korea? That title belongs to Busan!
@@dylantech That I agree.
South Korea is overrated. It's a country you wanna visit but not live in. It's like an amusement park. It's fun if you visit it occasionally but if you stay there permanently, it becomes boring and you realize it's not really that fun.
@@dylantech I thought Jeju, I love nature.
@@migovasquez0303Jeju is not city but island
To this day, many Koreans born and raised in Japan use the Japanese names. In Japan, being born doesn’t give you a citizenship, so they use their Korean names and passports when traveling abroad.
Zainichis' ancestors had Japanese citizenship taken away at the end of WWII. Many refused to naturalise because they thought they'd be succumbing to the systematised discrimination of ethnic Koreans in Japan.
It takes like 20 years, a friend of mine just got his citizenship. A lot of the koreans who have been there for a LONG time usually have it but it's notoriously difficult to get.
I remember in 80s, a friend of mine confessed that she was Korean. I didn’t know well enough about Koreans in Japan and discrimination associated with it, so I didn’t see her any differently. It seemed though, it apparently was a big deal to her, so I didn’t take it lightly. I don’t recall we learned much about other Asian histories in general.
@@NoaMaoalao zainichi koreans have two different branches. Pro south vs pro north
Birth citizenship is mostly an American thing.
You could see Fred's resemblance in his grandfather.
He always looked like he was mixed with Asian
@@babe8917 I thought he was mixed of white and black lol
Yes, the face shape.
I'm Korean- American. Welcome to the fam, Fred.
Where did you come from?
“Well Japan, but I’m Korean.”
I could see that distinction not being saved/noticed in 1930’s Germany.
That is completely irrelevant, because Fred's grandfather met Fred's father when Fred's father was an adult, in the 1960s or perhaps 1970s, judging by the photo, and the grandfather could have easily described his background at that time.
Really? I got the impression that the Axis powers prioritized ethnic "purity".
Japan was allied with Germany. To be fair to the Nazis (lol), while they persecuted Jews, Romani, and gay people, they had no problems with Muslims and Asians, they even looked to India as the root of their "Aryan" racial philosophy.
Japanese were considered honorary Aryans during the war time, though that would have changed after it as Nuremberg Laws considered them untermenschen.
I am Korean. The funny thing is, after hearing that Fred was Japanese, I thought he might be Korean. Because he showed some of the personality traits that Koreans have. Welcom Fred.
A lot of Japanese artists and entertainers who are assumed to be Japanese are actually Koreans, as much as 7 million Koreans used to live in Japan during 1920s~1940s, many gone back to Korea and numbers of Koreans in Japan was around 2 million after 1945, this got further reduced after about 1 million believed to have converted to naturalized Japanese, many changed their names to Japanese names, and these 1 million left became the Zainichi Koreans (long term residents of Korean nationals of either North or South Korea), and now only about 600,000 Zainichi Koreans are still in Japan.
even now, a lots of Japanese movie stars and singers are Korean decendents, but they do not disclose this because as soon as they are say they are Korean, the whole nation would turn around and discriminate.
His musical abilities and Korean music mania all makes sense now 😂
In Japan, there is a belief that Koreans are good at singing
We’re just louder. More vocal exercising while we fight and shame each other. We’re like the black jews of Asia
I actually love Fred Armisen. He is such a talented comedian and a genuinely nice man. I loved hearing his family story. It was great!!!
Back in his SNL days, I didn't "get" Fred Armisen. Now after watching every season of Portlandia several times, he's my favorite comedic actor ever. Just crazy talented. Also never swears, which I didn't notice for years
We couldn't agree more, Sharon! He is an incredible talent. We hope you enjoyed this segment of Finding Your Root featuring Fred Armisen. Thanks for stopping by!
He’s famous for lovebombing and then ghosting women in a toxic way before he got married too. Just Google it. It’s too bad that so many talented men treat women like garbage.
you swear? Straight to jail!
He is very talented and I love every show he's a part of, but it doesn't mean, necessarily, that he is a nice man. You never know the real personality through watching someone on stage.
😂😂😂 *BROOKLYN 99 MADE ME BELIEVE HE WAS ARMENIAN*
I thought this guy was Jewish
MLIPNOS!
Parks and Rec made me believe he was Venezuelan 😂
@@BillPelicanhis mom is Venezuelan
@@sarahmccabe174MLEP(CLAY)NOS! The clay is silent
His grandfather was Korean upper class and sent his children to study in Japan... so he was a collaborater? Wow, that's some crazy world history he now has to unpack.
No. Japan was annexed by Korea in 1870's. By the time The Pak family sent his grandfather to Japan, Koreans had been Japanese subjects for 50 years, It's the equivalent of a Filipino family sending their kids to the US to study in the 1930's.
most likely, since it was rare for a non-collaborator to be wealthy enough to send their children abroad.
@@danielfrancis3736 Korea was forcefully and wrongfully annexed by Japan in 1910. And even after the annexation treaty, there were independent fighters and collaborator.
He might not have been a direct collaborator with Japan persay and simply had class mobility from the pre-colonial Joseon era. But choosing to study in Japan definitely means he didn't particularly hold strong anti-colonial sentiments either.
@@danielfrancis3736 not that Wikipedia is always right or anything, but according to Wikipedia collaborators are most definitely a 20th century thing. The Japanese colonial period was about 1910-1945. They were even prosecuting them after South Korea went democratic in the 80s. It says they had to pass legislation in the early 21st century to protect them from further persecution.
I’m an adoptee, and would love to do this kind of thing someday. It was an open adoption so I know my biological parents, but the kicker is that my birthfather is *also* adopted! 😅
WOW❤
Hello Jem! We appreciate your interest in Ancestry and will be happy to provide some insights.
We would love for you to be able to learn more about your biological family, including your father's ancestry. Taking a DNA test could be a good starting point. Ideally you want to test the closest living relative to the unknown connection, if your biological father would be able to participate. However, you would also carry half of his DNA, hence you could work from your own results. When you take an AncestryDNA test you will be matched with anyone else also taking part in the service that shares DNA with you, from close to very distant relatives. By reviewing and contacting your matches you may be able to connect with relatives on your biological father's side. We always want to be clear that there are no guarantees for what you may find as it depends on who else is taking part in the service, but we have the largest DNA database of this kind in the world and have helped many members locate previously unknown biological family. As a start we recommend reading through the support article 'Finding Biological Family' here: support.ancestry.com/s/article/Finding-Biological-Family.
This RUclips video from Ancestry genealogist Crista Cowan may also provide some useful strategies:
ruclips.net/video/MOHhxZN_GHA/видео.html
If you have any questions or if we can be of further assistance, please don't hesitate to reach out again. We hope that this is helpful and wish you much success with your search!
You should do it!
On my father's side of the family, there's been extensive research of our family that goes back a long time, but the thing really intrigues me is that at a certain point, you just have "so and so: born ____ and died____". Nothing else unless they got married and had children, were baptized, etc. I long to know what these people were like and what kind of lives they lived.
Take the DNA test girl! My grandfather was an illegal adoption and we never thought we'd find his siblings, let alone 8
I recently found out that I am 30% Korean and it blew my mind since I grew up thinking I am ½ Japanese and ½ Chinese. My mom took Ancestry too and she is 100% Japanese. Unfortunately my dad passed away so we will never know where my Korean comes from…but my guess is from my paternal grandfather who was adopted.
Read Pachinko - it'll explain a lot about how Koreans hid their identities in Japan.
How can you be 30% of anything? 30%?
Hi, Michelle. Thanks for getting in touch. We can understand that you'd have some confusion about your results. We do have the ability to determine which side of the family your ethnicities come from. We have a couple of articles that we hope you'll find helpful. After reading the articles, please let us know if you have other questions.
support.ancestry.com/s/article/Ethnicity-Inheritance?language=en_US
support.ancestry.com/s/article/Unexpected-Ethnicity-Results?language=en_US
Thats where he got the performer gene.
I love this show. It's so wonderful that this show connects people with their past, their family stories and sometimes even lost relatives. 😃
We're so glad you enjoyed this segment with Fred Armisen! Thank you for the kind words.
Not mentioning that Japan took control of Korea, and by the 1930's, Japan was expanding control of Korea and Manchuria, China? Korean weren't exactly treated well under Japanese rule in Korea or in Japan, which in earlier periods of Japanese history, craftsman from Korea & China were in Japan, settled, which there both Chinese and Korean features existed in Japanese in some parts of Japan. Features of Koreans, Chinese and Japanese have certain features, which they can look at the face/body and know if they look Korean, Japanese or Chinese. Changing the names of Koreans to Japanese, wasn't only due to looting, but might have been for discrimination of being Korean.
Their animosities between Japan - Korea - China went way back hundreds of years ago, during the Mongol Invasion. When it revealed the majority of soldiers among the Mongols was from Korea and China.
@@manchesterunitedno7 True - a lot of soldiers in the Mongol army were captured Korean and Chinese. But even before that time period pirates from Japan would frequently raid the Korean Peninsula. The animosity was triggered by those from the Japanese islands long before the Yuan Dynasty period.
Korea as a unified nation (excluding its existence as a Mongol vassal state) never initiated invasion of the Japanese islands. Why? No need to. It had much fertile and better lands and as a land with small population it never fought an offensive war to gain territory without cause.
20th century history certainly increased Asia’s animosity towards Japan but truth is, Korea (and China for that matter) never fully trusted the Japanese islands throughout the periods of written history at least going back to the time of unified Korea.
Those scrappy Koreans were forever getting the heel of an oppressor's boot... and survived time and time again. And look at South Korea now. Is it a perfect country/society? Of corse not. But I am so proud of how far they have come in the past 71 years.
@theajane6444 Korea was actually pretty strong and economically stable duing majority of its history. Most people just remember the big events where they got invaded.
Yes until the 20th century. Korea was ravaged economically by colonialism, then WWII, then the Korean War, and then a brief moment during IMF. @@avocaza1393
근데 검색 해보니 할아버지라는 사람 2차대전때 일본 정보원으로 활동 했다고 하고 나치 위문공연에 자원했다는 말도 있어서 좀 논란이 있는 인물임
골수 친일파 일수도 있음
친일파 집안일 확률이 컸던 부분이 친일본 제국주의자이자, 친나치 행보를 한 정황이 있죠. 그런데 잘 아시겠지만, 당시 연예인이나, 공무원은 모두 다 창씨 개명 뿐만이 아니라, 일본왕에게 충성서약도 하게 했기 때문에 가담 정도가 중요한 것이지, 단지 사인이 있다고 하여 친일파다, 혹은 쌀을 얻기 위해 공산당 가입했다고 하여 공산당이다라고 판단할 수는 없어요.
@@유니-k7z전적으로 동의 함
그 당시를 우리가 살아보지 않았기에 쉽게 이야기하지만 밥 굶지 않기 위해 창씨개명하고 일본인들에게 설설거린 사람들 전부를 욕할순 없다고 봅니다.
과하다 과해… 백 하고도 몇십년전 사람을 뭘 그리 검색하고 샅샅이 찾아보는지…. ㅉㅉㅉ
조선시대때 하던 연좌제를 아직도 들먹이는 현대 한국인들ㅋ
우리가 프랑스 같은 나라들처럼 친일파를 완전히 숙청시킨 것도 아니니 이런 논란도 있는 것일듯.
연좌제가 아니니 괜찮을까?
나라 팔아먹은 이완용이나 그런 놈들 후손들. 몰수된 땅들 반환소송 해대는 친일파 후손들은 죄가 없는걸까?
적어도 친일파였던 조상에 대한 부끄러움과 반성은 있어야지.
저 박영인도 일본으로 유학할 정도면 배고파서 창씨개명하고 빌붙을 건 아니었을 듯
Can I just highlight something for everyone... We were just reminded that the Japanese military, police, and vigilantes rounded up and murdered 6,000 Koreans only 100 years ago. But not only Koreans, they also murdered Chinese and Japanese who _looked_ Korean to them. They also used it as an excuse to murder Japanese citizens who opposed the government in power at the time.
I just like to highlight very important topics that still have lasting impacts on our current climate.
This was super cool. It's amazing how History comes alive by getting to know these family stories.
저 할아버지 찐 친일파라는 얘기가..... 해방후에도 일본인으로 살았다네요 그러니 할아버지인데도 일본인이라고 알고있지;;;
친나치였고, 일본 스파이로도 활동했다고 하네요. 박영인 검색하면 나옴.
니내 할배도 친일파였는데 우짜노
건국은 1948년 인거 알지
친나치 친일파 맞아요
Korea had been conquered by Japan. When I heard that he went to school in Japan, I immediately knew that his family was wealthy, because nobody else had that sort of opportunity. A lot of Koreans did hard labor in Japan, but they sure didn't become dancers!
I'm glad Armisen has finally met his grandfather. I hope he goes to Korea to link with his family there.
yes, wealthy upper class people of Korea during occupation, sent their kids to Japan to study.
I'm pretty sure many wealthy Indians (from India) sent their kids to UK to study, when India was colony of UK.
same thing.
저의 할아버지는 일본에서 자리를 잡고 사업을 하셨던 분입니다. 가난한 사람들도 일본에 많이 이주하였고, 많진 않지만, 차별적인 대우에서도 소수의 사람들이 성공을 하였습니다.
덕분에 저의 아버지는 1960년대에 일본에서 유학을 했었죠. 꼭 부유한 사람만 일본에 유학보낸 것도 아닙니다. 당시 YMCA 자료에 따르면 대다수의 부유한 집안 사람들이 유학을 한 것은 사실이지만, 예전이나 지금이나 20% 내외의 예외는 있었던 법이죠.
박영인은 당대 일본 최고 대학인 도쿄제국대학을 졸업했습니다. 부유하지 않으면 힘든 일입니다. 그의 남동생도 서울대학교 의과대학을 졸업하고 고향인 울산에서 종합병원을 설립했습니다.
so a japanese citizen and a german meet together in germany in 1941… thats interesting i wonder what was going on in that time in germany and japan
apparently, he attended Tokyo Imperial University, which is the best university in Japan at the time, and still is.
after graduating from that school, he was sent to Germany by Japanese governemnt, to study Dance under German master dancers.
Japan and Germany was ally in ww2
@@davidjacobs8558그는 일본인이 되어 독일군의 스파이 노릇을 했어요
"im korean!!? why hasnt anyone told me! ,this changes everything! does dad know!??"
This is actually a good question, b/c Armisen's father may not have even known until this show.
Being upper class and sending his kids to Japan for school at that time makes me wonder if his family were considered "collaborators."
Most likely. The same ones that sold off the villages woman to the Japanese slave brothels as well.
I have the same guess since at the time the tension must be already high. Sending your son to supposedly hostile country is not something ordinary folk would do, lol
@@yothiga Well he says that the family is still a high ranking family so they likely weren't seen as such. Koreans tend to be very harsh about that even now. I think the family knew how to handle the politics of it all.
Take my granddad for example, he was a hired mechanic by the Japanese when my country was occupied but he was also a spy sending messages to the American troops. There were many who did the same. Thankfully, he didn't get caught.
Possible.
From the rest of the episode, his grandfather was in Germany in the 1930s and doing shows for the German soldiers in the field (basically equivalent to the USO) because he was spying on them for the Japanese.
Most likely.... rich and "collaborative" or we would say "pro-japan" which meant worse than betrayer in this part of the world.
Were the Yayoi, Koreans? 일본 야요이는 한국인이었나?
Mitsu Hadeishi--Principal Architect, Twin Health--Studied at Harvard University
The short answer is: yes, the evidence is extremely strong that the Yayoi were Korean, and modern-day Japanese are a mix of mostly Yayoi and to a lesser extent indigenous Jomon genes. To be more precise: the Yayoi were almost certainly a people who originally (mostly) lived in South Korea, some of whom migrated to Kyushu by around 2200-2300 years ago, and the ones who stayed behind were absorbed into the countries of Goguryo, Baekje, and Silla to form a large proportion of what is now known as Korea.
The primary reason I think this is by far the most likely explanation for the origins of the Yayoi comes from linguistic analysis: A recent study shows that the various dialects of Japanese originated from a common root language approximately 2,200 years ago. This fits perfectly with the archaeological evidence that the Yayoi culture first appeared in Kyushu at around the same time; the most logical explanation is the Yayoi people arrived from South Korea speaking proto-Japanese and they spread rapidly across the Japanese islands because the rice agriculture they used enabled their population to grow much more rapidly than the native Jomon peoples. (If the modern Japanese language had another origin - for example, if it had evolved from the Jomon language or came in via an earlier wave of migration, it would be unlikely that we would see Japanese dialects having a common root so close to the time we know the Yayoi arrived in Kyushu - the common origin would correspond to a much earlier date.) There is not much evidence of violent displacement of the Jomon; rather, it appears the Yayoi multiplied more rapidly due to better agricultural technology and ended up absorbing the Jomon people. Genetic analysis indicates the contribution of Yayoi to Japanese genetics is approximately 65 percent or more; but modern-day Japanese are descended by about 35 percent or less from the original Jomon people.
This is why, although the Yayoi could easily be called Korean in origin, there are nevertheless many unique genetic characteristics in Japan: these likely come from the original Jomon people who lived in Japan for at least 12,000 years prior to the arrival of the Yayoi. Nevertheless what we call modern Japanese culture clearly arrived with the Yayoi, including the language.
As a Japanese-American, I find it bizarre the extent to which right-wing Japanese want to believe that Japanese are not partly descended from Koreans or indebted to Koreans for our culture. Growing up in the US, I think I have a more objective attitude about all this, and just want to see where the evidence takes us.
Of course, the Yayoi were not the only ancestors of modern-day Korea; it’s more accurate to say the Yayoi were a major population that contributed to become modern-day Koreans, and are likely to be most closely related to Koreans whose ancestors come primarily from the southern part of Korea.
In terms of the language: the fact that Japanese originated with a single common root language approximately 2,200 years ago to me is by far the strongest evidence it must have come in from Korea with the Yayoi, but the only reason it didn’t survive on the peninsula is the Silla language, which became modern-day Korean, eventually displaced proto-Japanese in South Korea. However, there is evidence the language spoken in Goguryeo had many proto-Japanese components, because of a phonetic record of Goguryeo place names about half of which show Japonic words or elements. Some have speculated that the Goguryeo language was the precursor to modern-day Japanese, but other linguists believe that the more likely explanation is the proto-Japanese words found in Goguryeo were imported from a previously existing proto-Japanese language in South Korea. As for Baekje there has been speculation they spoke two languages; one of them might well have been proto-Japanese; since Goguryeo and Baekje were closely related it makes sense both countries may have had proto-Japanese words.
I believe the hypothesis that the reason there were Japanese influences in South Korea is that somehow Japanese came to South Korea from the Japanese islands makes little sense. The Jomon lived in Japan prior to the Yayoi arrival and they were hunter-gatherers. They were successful as hunter-gatherers go, but they were highly unlikely to be engaging in any territorial expansion. More importantly however the timing of the origin of the Japanese language on the islands means it came in exactly when Yayoi appeared in Kyushu: so the obvious conclusion is Yayoi culture originated on the mainland and came to Japan at that time, and they spoke an ancient form of Japanese, not the other way around. (Interesting addendum: a fascinating detailed new reconstruction of the language spoken by the Yamatai which comes to similar conclusions).
There are so many other clues: despite the fact that Japanese and modern-day Korean don’t have a lot of common words, the grammar is nearly identical. The form of subject-particle-object-particle-verb is precisely the same in the two languages and this is an extremely rare pattern among world languages. It seems likely to me the Yayoi language originated from a branch off from the Silla and other Korean peoples with an origin perhaps a couple thousand years before the Yayoi came to Japan, and the Yayoi people developed first in South Korea. (New additions: Fascinating new work by Max Planck scholar Martine Robbeets indicates via an impressive computational linguistics analysis and a novel construction of a proposed proto-Transeurasian language with archaeological confirmation that shows strong evidence for a genetic link between Korean and Japanese as well links with other language families such as Mongolic and others - and provides an explanation for Austronesian influence in Japanese. Also, more evidence proto-Japanese was spoken in Korea and that Korean and Japanese are likely descended from an even older shared root language - h/t to Ed Kim for sharing this, and another interesting article written by a translator familiar with both Japanese and Korean, also pointing out the many similarities, down to fine details, between the grammar of the languages.)
One other interesting historical fact is Japan in ancient times was closely allied with the Baekje Kingdom. We helped them in multiple wars spanning the 4th to the 7th centuries and who knows, possibly before. Japan sent tens of thousands of troops to defend Baekje; after Baekje was defeated by Silla many of their princes fled to Japan and intermarried with Japanese nobility. Why would they do this? Why did we feel so close to them? Could it be that back then we still remembered we originally came from Korea? Is it possible that proto-Japanese was actually still one of the languages spoken in Baekje at the time? We treated them like brothers, like family.
Yet today, right-wing Japanese want to erase those close relations, or claim that somehow Korea was a territory of Japan rather than the likely truth that the Yayoi culture, and Japanese language, originated there and mixed with Jomon to become Japan as we know it today.
I see a Japanese right-winger wrote a very emotional post claiming there is no possibility Japan owes anything significant to Korea for its culture or genetic heritage. To this I just have to say: do you realize you may be insulting our own ancestors who made the difficult journey from Korea to Japan to start a new life and build a civilization which later became one of the great civilizations of the world? Why be so insistent that Japanese culture and people descended only from the Jomon? Sure: the Jomon are ALSO our ancestors, which explains why modern Japanese have unique genetic traits distinct from Koreans:
but Japanese culture and language as we know it today almost certainly began in South Korea and likely survived in some form for hundreds of years there until it was finally subsumed by the Silla invasion. Investigations of ancient Japanese Imperial tombs show there were Korean swords and inscriptions found there.
As someone who can trace his own lineage back to the Minamoto/Genji clan I find it inspiring to understand the true history of our culture and people. I find the desire on the part of right wingers in Japan to deny our close connection to Korea to be sad, irrational, and ultimately tragic: I believe we once remembered that our ancestors came from Korea to settle on the islands and intermarry with the Jomon, but today we have forgotten that history and some small-minded people denigrate our Korean brothers today. That is a travesty in my mind, as well as simply irrational and inconsistent with the linguistic, archeological, and genetic evidence.
야요이인이 4세기쯤 규슈에서 급증했다는 연구 결과는 일본인 교수가 예전에 밝힌적이 있습니다.가야, 백제, 신라, 고구려에서 다 건너 갔습니다. 한국인과 유전적으로 가장 유사한 지역은 현대 중국 동북부(과거 중국 북부는 한족이 살던 지역이 아니라 북방민족이 따로 있었음)와 일본입니다.
프레드 아미슨같은 경우가 한둘이 아닙니다.
세계에 자신이 일본계인줄 아는 한국계가 정말 많을겁니다.
일본이 한국을 지배하던 식민지 시절 한국 이름을 일본 이름으로 강제하던 창씨개명이 있었으니까요..
이분 할아버지는 일부로 일본이름을쓰면서 일본에살고 한국인임을 숨긴거에요 친일파였으니까요
Male dancer at the time in Korea was not imaginable for a learned man. His grandfather must have a free spirit.
한국인으로서 그의 할아버지가 한국인이라고 밝혀졌을 때 반갑기도 했고, 그가 결국 독일로 건너가 친나치 행보를 했음을 알았을 때는 기분이 묘했습니다. 내 증조할아버지(친할아버지의 아버지)는 독립운동가셨고 형무소에 몇 년 갇혀계시다 출소한 후 가난하게 사시다 돌아가셨습니다. 증조할아버지의 공로를 인정받아 우리 남매는 대학 등록금을 덜 냅니다. 굉장히 모순적인 점이 하나 있는데, 내 또다른 증조할아버지(내 친할머니의 아버지)는 일제강점기의 순사였습니다. 그리고 내 친할머니의 사촌들 중 하나 아주아주 높은 고위 공무원직을 지내셨었습니다.
One of my favorite segments from the show. When Fred finds out why his grandfather was _really_ in Germany made it all the more interesting. 😁
Was he a spy?
@@M_SC Yes! He was, for Japan. Even though Japan & Germany were both Axis Powers, Japan wanted to know what Germany may, or may not, be doing that wasn’t necessarily disclosed.
@@Ernwaldo 🤣
@@Ernwaldo한국이 일본에의해 억압받고 고통스러운 시간을 보내던 시기에 그는 일본인이 되어 나치의 스파이 역할까지 한 것으로 보입니다 후손들에게 자신이 한국인이라는것을 절대 알리지 못 한 이유가 이거에요
I thought Armisen was spoofing the show…
Japan must say sorry to those 6000 innocent people whe were murdered in 1923. By looking at the photos, my eyes gets teary.
I didn't get a Finding Your Roots treatment, but through Ancestry I did learn that my very-very-very-Scottish grandmother was in fact not Scottish but genetically, pure Irish. Nearest I can tell, my great Grandparents left Ireland in the 1920's for Scotland likely due to the Irish Civil War and so she was raised in Scotland. So for almost my entire life I said I was part Scottish when in fact I am Irish. This was also confirmed by an Ancestry DNA test. Incredible!
I thought Irish and Scottish were related people.
they were pushed out by Romans, who eventually left, then came Anglo-Saxon invaders, who in turn were pushed out by Danish and Normans.
Family talent has remained to Fred! Being on a newspaper was a big thing back in the colonization days in Korea.
Well it is quite normal for many japanese not to know that they are actually Korean. After the war many Koreans would settle in Japan changing identity and taking on Japanese names. Their children born in Japan would have Japanese names, but always having some root in Korea. Many of my friends are quarter Korean while born Japanese.
"Settle" is a very whitewashed term for what the history was. Koreans in Japan feared for their lives and basic survival - and hid their identities. It's not like an immigrant moving to the USA today and changing their name from Sun Tak to Susan to blend in.
As a Korean... this story sounds a bit suspicious. During the era of japanese colonization, most of Korean upper class people were pro-Japan being dedicated to empire, who were considered as traitors from Koreans. And, almost all Koreans who were forced to change their names into japanese way returned their names back into Korean when Korea was independent. The facts that his grandfather was in upper class rich family during the colonial era, and went to Tokyo and Germany for stury(which means volentary moving), and the facts that he did not change his name back to Korean way even after the independence, and he did not tell his son and grandson about his original ethnicity eventhough Koreans usually have very strong affection for their roots, makes me feel that his grandfather might be one of those 'traitors' who worked for Japanese empire and did many horrible things to Korean people. However, we cannot figure out exact truth...
True. But not all the rich upper class Koreans wete traitors. Many Independence movements, protests and battles were organized by Yangbans as well. The first Manse movement was also held in Tokyo by Koreans that had sparked March 1st movement in Korea. Many elites who studied abroad also organized Korean Independence army in the US, Manchuria and Shanghai. Many rich Yangbans also traveled to Europe and America to appeal to the international committee for the independence of Korea as well. But his grandpa seem pretty SUS....
이거 좀 말이 안됩니다. 당시 지배계층이나 공무원들은 창씨개명 외에도 천황에 대한 충성서약을 강요받았습니다. 이건 삼성, LG 선대 회장의 조상들 같은 그 당시에도 부유층 집안 자제도 마찬가지였습니다. 그들은 일제의 요구를 들어주어야만 했고, 그렇다고 하여 삼성, LG의 선대 창업자들을 보고 일제에 협력했고, 그들의 자녀들도 일본의 명문 대학교까지 졸업시켰다고 하여 스파이라고 하진 않습니다. 저희 외할아버지는 공무원이었고, 당연히 일제에 협력해야 하니 충성서약도 했지만, 독립운동가들에게 자금을 전달하여 공무원직 박탈 및 고문까지 받아, 등을 인두로 짖은 자국이 있었지만, 외할아버지가 부유한 집안이었고, 공무원직 박탈당한 후에도 주유소까지 운영했기 때문에 나름대로 좋은 생활을 계속 유지했습니다. 다른 비유를 들면, 6.25 전쟁때 북한이 서울 함락 시 북한 공산당에 가입을 종용했었고, 이에 응한 사람들만 생명을 유지할 수 있는 곡식을 주었던 상황을 떠올리면 됩니다. 공산당원 가입명부에 서명했다고 하여, 빨갱이로 몰고 다시 남한이 서울을 수복했을때 그 명단을 보고 집단 학살을 시킨 것은 유명한 역사적 사실이잖아요.
@@유니-k7z모든 지배계층이 친일파는 아니였지만 상당수의 지배계층이 친일파였다고봐도 무방하죠 거기다 저 할아버지라는 사람은 굉장히 의문이에요 조선이 억압받던 시절에 자발적으로 일본에 가서 일본인이 되었고 나치 스파이 노릇까지 함 미국에서도 살다가 노년엔 일본에 돌아가서 일본인으로 죽음 친일파는 맞아요
This was one of the best episodes. So very interesting. A great history lesson.
I’d love to have this done to my father. He was born in Seoul at the outbreak of the war to young a Korean mother and a foreigner we think was an American. We know our Korean family ran an opera in Seoul up until the war, and we know the man was American and had ashkenazi dna, but that is all we know. The war destroyed any connection we have to the Korean side and to the American.
With the 28th overall pick, the Koreans select…..Fred Armisen.
His grandfather was a traitor
@@Bbanjahk eh, we don't know that for sure.
@@woopy93 he gave up his Korean identity. He's a traitor
@@Bbanjahkeh, that’s kind of unfair to judge so harshly without knowing all the facts
As a Korean, I really appreciate that this video captures the historical conflict between Korea and Japan. The Japanese tortured, raped, and mistreated Koreans during that time, and it remains to a big scar for Koreans. The story in video seems like ‘창씨개명’ which means ‘Changing the name into Japanese’. To change the name to Japanese was to deny and uproot hundred years of Korean history. If Koreans deny to change their names, they penalized Koreans. There’s a lot of stories during the Japanese colonial era. I hope more and more people interested and informed about this. And I hope that Japan will apologize to Korea properly, instead of denying their faults and history.
Fred Armison's real last name is Park. Please come to Korea Fred and find out about your culture. 😊
그 시절 한국에서 상류층이었다는 것은, 게다가 이제까지 할아버지가 한국인임을 아무도 알려주지 않았다는건 참으로 많은 것을 암시하네요. 물론, Fred 당신은 잘못이 없습니다.
일본인이되어 독일군 스파이 노릇까지 했음 한국이 일본에의해 억압받던 시절에 일본인이 되어 독일군 스파이까지 한 친일파였으니 후손들에게 한국인이라고 말을 못 하겠지
This was during the Japanese occupation of Korea, so there were a lot of Koreans going to Japan for one reason or another. My own maternal grandfather also studied university in Japan.
And on a more serious note, Fred Armisen, as a Korean, I welcome you to the fold.
I never noticed he had light eyes! He’s such a good mix of ethnicities.
I love you Fred. Korean Food is my ultimate answer to “If you can eat only one type of food, which one will it be?” I love you as Helene
If you learn why his grandfather had to hide his homeland, you'll come to understand the tragic history between Korea and Japan-the painful reality Koreans faced under Japanese rule.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is an awesome guy! This series, his books and his wisdom are such a gift 💝
I will look at him differently now that I am aware he is (1/4) Asian. We hapas welcome our Asian brothers and sisters.
Well now Fred Armisen needs to read Pachinko
My first thought was, someone in his family knew his grandfather was Korean, so why didn't they tell him? But then I remembered that families often keep secrets from family members. Not exactly sure why, but they do. I was middle-aged when I found out my father has an older half-sister and I have half-cousins (?). Btw, I met them and they were nice, but in no way did it feel like a family reunion.
Most of the ancestors of modern Japanese ppl had emigrated from Korean Peninsula. But they denies the fact.
@@jakefield true! Cause they believe they are superior.
And also hk, Singaporean as well. Despite they are border to South asia and they look identical to Vietnamese, they are keep denying that they are similar to them. Why? Hab tribe chinese think they are superior. Lol
Rather, they are keep insisting koreans whose neighbor is russia, extremely cold, are south asians. So Koreans fair skin, high nose, tall height are all obtained by plastic surgery
I love Fred armisen as an entertainer. His work is top notch and it’s great learning about this
Japanese did not use shoes until the 5th century and were a pirate people until they met Portuguese merchants. If you look at Korean and Chinese history books, there is a lot about the barbarism of the Japanese.
He never did Ancestry DNA obviously.
Finally I know where Mlepnos is from.
Yes! But, is the "Clay" still silent?
*Mlepclaynos
Mlepnos isn’t Armenian!
During Japanese rule it was made mandatory to change Korean names to Japanese names. My grandma (b.1926) used a Japanese name until the Korean independence. All Korean names were restored after ww2.
Goosebumps. There’s nothing more eye opening than finding out your bloodline. Like they say, you don’t truly know yourself until you know your roots.
And whole story means his grandfather betrayed Joseon.
One of us! Welcome to the club. Saw the title of this video and I thought it was troll at first.
The newspaper clipping at 1:04 says "original name Park Young-in" in the original Japanese. So despite his new name, any of his acquaintances in the dance world would have known that he was ethnic Korean.
He is also part of the novle "Pakchinko"
Fred is a lovely human being. ❤😊
Oh my gosh this makes more sense- I never thought he looked Japanese!☺️
How can you tell, are you Asian? Lol
Ah the history between Korea and Japan. We all learn it in Korea, and as soon as I saw the title, I knew what it meant. It's very tragic and I hope we shed light on the subject more often.
I’m actually half Japanese and always thought he was part Korean anyway!
Hi Nikki, and thanks for stopping by! We hope you loved this episode as much as we did! Thanks for sharing.
Grandfather went to England, Germany, and even Japan spy, he is Korean, and he is on the side of Japan, and he is the one who suffered the Korean people Don't ever call grandfather Fred Korean
Not much hope for the older generations but I love that the younger generation does not allow a terrible past dictate they way they view and interact amongst Koreans and Japanese. its long over due for the 2 nations to move past the bad history and start a better one. Welcome to the KBBQ Fred. You're family now brother.
"Why hasn't anyone told me this?". Lesson #1 in Korean family dynamics. Welcome to the clan Fred Armisen.
Born in Mississippi!! We proud you bro
Misleading. The Japanese are a mix, but so are Koreans, and the largest contributors to the Japanese gene pool were Koreans from the mainland who slowly over time displaced the original inhabitants. This, of course, is rather controversial, though the current emperor recognizes his Korean roots.
@@Kermit_T_Frog true. Korean, Japanese are closest race to each other. Northern chinese as well
Good to know Fred was just as curious as the rest of us
What a fascinating story! I’m so happy for Fred that he was able to learn about his genuine ethnic background and hope that he’s able to connect with his Korean relations.
I had my own wowza Ancestry moment, while researching my Irish born great-great grandmother, Martha.
She was born in 1841, just prior to the famine that wasn’t an actual famine. The Great Hunger, An Gorta Mor in Irish, occurred not only because of blight ruining the potato crops which were the main sustenance for the Irish, but also because the Irish were being forced out of their homes by the ruling British.
Martha crossed the Atlantic in an overcrowded and disease ridden coffin ship, so named because so many people died during the crossing. She ended up in Quebec City, which was basically a “dumping grounds” for the coffin ships which all other ports refused to accept the passengers, including U.S. cities.
The wowza moment occurred when Martha, an Irish Catholic, married James, a Church of England widower with a son, in an Anglican cathedral! It’s like a cat and a dog getting married, lol!
Martha and James had ten children, six of whom lived to adulthood. On census listings, Martha continued to list herself as Catholic and ALL of the children were listed as Catholic! I would love to know the backstory behind how this all happened! Martha must’ve been one very strong-willed woman!
as far as I know I have no asian folks in my ancestry. this frees me to enjoy sushi and kimchi without conflicts. 😏
Thank you for this video. I do wish they - Gates Jr., the producers and researchers - did a little better job of explaining the history of Koreans under Japanese colonial rule. The earthquake incident was not an isolated incident - Koreans had no rights during that time and couldn't become citizens even if they were born there. MANY Koreans changed their names to Japanese names and hid their Korean identities in order to survive, like Armisen's grandfather. "Pachinko" is a phenomenal book (fiction)/TV series that depicts what happened during that period. Learning things like this can help fill us with gratitude about what our ancestors endured for us to be here today.
love that awkward laugh and exchange of looks at 1:12 as if to say "you have no idea my friend" 😂😂
This is amazing. It’s way more interesting when people have this diverse background.
So his grandpa was one of the very first K-pop artists. I get where he got his talents from.
there were a lot of rumors that many famous Japanese singers in 60's 70's were secretly Koreans.
how true were these claims ? who knows.
@@davidjacobs8558 Not only in the 60s and 70s, but you can find many "Japanese" actors, singers and athletes in the 90s and even in the 21st that were actually Korean but had to be in disguise due to severe discrimination. The list of famous Zainichi entertainers in Japan is pretty long. I heard some of them were canceled in the middle of a long drama series due to their ethnicity.