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

[Music] why isn't anyone told me [Music] this comedian Fred armison came to me with a mystery his father was born in Germany in 1941 the child of a young German woman and a professional dancer from Japan a man named Masami COI the couple never met married and didn't stay together long indeed Fred's father didn't even meet Cooney until he was an adult and Fred himself knew almost nothing about his grandfather we set out to change that we sent researchers to Tokyo where Cooney attended College then launched his career we soon uncovered a Japanese newspaper that would forever change Fred's identity 1933 turning to the World of Dance the debut performance of rising dancer Kuni Masami original name Pac young in so he has an original name mhm pack youngin it's a Korean name yeah not a Japanese name so am I Korean well that changes many many things I was going to say everything I mean I guess everything I'm a quarter Korean how's it make you feel you understand that I tell people that I have interviews right where I say I am a quarter Japanese cuz you thought you were quarter Japanese but genetically you're quarter Korean why isn't anyone told me this the story of Cooney's name change is bound up in the tortured history of the 20th century in 1923 a massive earthquake hit Tokyo and Japanese newspapers began running largely invented reports of Koreans looting and raping amidst the devastation retaliation was Swift and brutal more than 6,000 Korean people were murdered at the time Fred's grandfather was attending High School in Japan suddenly his life was in danger can you imagine being a teenager and knowing that you could be killed if people mistook you for one ethnicity or and these tensions between Japanese Koreans exist to the same it's the same old story man we know from every culture you have other and you demonize the other you punish them right so where did he get the name from he began passing quote unquote just as he was trying to launch his professional career there a stage name a stage name yeah by the time he went to Berlin in about 1936 he had assumed a Japanese identity he goes I'm I'm Japanese there you go that's the story okay does it change the way you think about your grandfather and does it change the way you think about yourself it definitely it changes the way I think about myself um just because I think we all assign qualities to nationalities M so the fact that I love Japanese food I just assume is like well it's cuz I'm part Japanese you like Kim Chi I guess I'll have to now this is incredible incredible researchers told us that Coon's family came from the uson region in Korea as it turns out Fred still has relatives who live there and they were delighted to tell us what they knew about Cooney your grandfather was a member of a family that was in the Korean upper class wow his father was named Puck namguk and according to the PAC family Pac namguk espoused Western ideas and practice is so he sent his sons to study in the most developed parts of the Japanese empire so in a sense you're who you are Fred armson because almost a hundred years ago a man named Pac namguk decided to send his son off to school and then he became a dancer then he became a dancer changed his name went to Germany met a beautiful German girl yeah and the Hand a fair yeah it's amazing story it's an incredible story y I can't believe it's taken this long in my life to to know such a huge part of my genetic makeup discovering our ancestors can change our lives helping us to understand more fully who we are where we came from and how we're all connected to a much larger world to see more Incredible family history stories click here and thank you for watching

Channel: Ancestry

Views: 477,265

Keywords: ancestrydna, ancestry, finding your roots, family tree now, family tree, ancestors, family search, dna discovery, dna tests, dna test kits, dna analysis, ancestry com, family connections, ancestry.com, family history, heritage, history, family, adoption stories, relatives, family members, 23andme, myheritage, findmypast, descendants, family reunions, celebrity ancestry, famous ancestry, fred armisan, actor, new leaf, fred armisen, SNL, fred armisen SNL, portlandia, fred armisen korean

Id: ye7z3ErM4Dw

Length: 5min 2sec (302 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 23 2024