Fred Armisen Discovers He Is Actually Korean | Finding Your Roots | Ancestry® 

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

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

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

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.

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 😄

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.

@@실버블렛-g3j true

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 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 😂

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

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..

In Japan, there is a belief that Koreans are good at singing

True. Cause Koreans are taller and better looking

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.

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

He always looked like he was mixed with Asian

@@babe8917 I thought he was mixed of white and black lol

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

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 😆

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 RU-vid video from Ancestry genealogist Crista Cowan may also provide some useful strategies: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MOHhxZN_GHA.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

We're so glad you enjoyed this segment with Fred Armisen! Thank you for the kind words.

"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.

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.

Japan and Germany was ally in ww2

​@@davidjacobs8558그는 일본인이 되어 독일군의 스파이 노릇을 했어요

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

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

친나치였고, 일본 스파이로도 활동했다고 하네요. 박영인 검색하면 나옴.

니내 할배도 친일파였는데 우짜노 건국은 1948년 인거 알지

친나치 친일파 맞아요

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.

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

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

@@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 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.

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

Yes! But, is the "Clay" still silent?

*Mlepclaynos

Mlepnos isn’t Armenian!

Hi Nikki, and thanks for stopping by! We hope you loved this episode as much as we did! Thanks for sharing.

It is truly wonderful to see when our ancestors' stories and characters remain in our personalities today! Thanks for watching this segment, Grace. We hope you enjoyed it.

@@AncestryUS You're very kind thank you! I'm glad you share this content with us.

일본이 아시아에서 학살한 인구만 200만명이에요

Thank you for your continued viewership!

🇰🇷💛❤️

It truly is such an incredible family tale! We hope you enjoyed learning more about Fred Armisen's incredible family history. Thanks for watching!

Not joking. Other secrets revealed in this ancestry research. Nice little epilogue at the end where Fred visits a museum in Japan dedicated to his grandfather that Fred never knew about. One of my favorite episodes.

Burst out laughing when I read your comment and looked back at the thumbnail

To everyone's credit, Fred actually looks a good bit like how veteran Korean actor Kim Kyu-Cheol looked in his 20s.