From the childhood, Ilhan New learned his father's love for the country and the patriotic spirit from the sorrow of his people who lost their country at the end of Korean Empire and with the Christianity-based resistance. He developed his own patriotic spirit as he underwent the military training in the Korean Child Soldier School and was affected by Jae-pil Seo and others.

After hearing the news about the Mar. 1 Independence Movement in 1919, Dr. Ilhan New participated in the Korean Freedom Convention led by Jae-pil Seo and held in Philadelphia and announced the Resolution Elucidating Koreans' Purposes and Aspiration. He started to positively participate in more activities for recovering the sovereignty of the fatherland and obtaining the independence, even working as an executive branch member of the International Korean Convention held in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1941 and as a Korean advisor of the Office of Strategic Service (OSS) of the US Army in 1942.

As the Second World War Ⅱ broke out, the US needed an Asian specialist, and Dr. Ilhan New took the position as an advisor, devoting himself to the independence of his fatherland with the yearning for the liberation and independence of his own country. In addition, he read a congratulatory message at the Korean flag-raising ceremony held at the city hall of Los Angeles, US, in Aug., 1942. He also played a key role in establishing the Mangho Army for National Independence consisting of Koreans in the US.

Several months before the independence on August 15, 1945, Dr. Ilhan New worked as the head of Team No. 1 in the NAPKO project planned by the OSS of the US Army. The NAPKO Project was a special project for training patriotic Koreans in the US as a commando and infiltrating them to Korea. However, the project was not carried out as Japan surrendered before the operation of the project.

NAPKO Project and Korea Penetration Army

he US had a plan to infiltrate armed forces consisting of Koreans into Korea. The plan was related to the famous training of the Liberation Army of Chongqing Provisional Government by OSS and the plan for the penetration to Korea. According to the report by Colonel Fifler, the organizer of the Field Experiment Unit, to Donovan, the OSS Director, on March 7, the purpose of the NAPKO project was to 'prepare an army to immediately infiltrate to Korea and ultimately form an underground intelligence organization in Japan to carry out sabotage and non-violent resistance continuously.'

The plan could have effectively show the positive support by the 23 million Korean people for a revolution for the sake of the independence. The OSS in the continental US secretly promoted the NAPKO project to infiltrate to Korea, and the OSS branch in China prepared the Eagle Operation using the Liberation Army as well as a Northern China Operation to send the Joseon Volunteer Army in the coastal regions through Manchuria. However, as the Second World War was finished and Japan was defeated, the two plans for infiltrating into the Korean Peninsula were frustrated.

If the war had not been finished so early, an underground organization would have been formed through Dr. Ilhan New's personal network and the Yuhan Corporation network in Seoul. Followed by the operation by the Liberation Army, an impressive resistance movement, like the French Resistance, could have happened in the Korean Peninsula.

If a company is devoted to money-making only, it's nothing but a miser.

Dr. Ilhan New's fundamental principles of business management were love of the country and love of the people. Of course, he neither gave up nor rejected the pursuit of profits. Rather, he positively pursued profits, considering profit-making as positive. However, he considered the profits made by a company as the reward for a company's contribution made by the manufacturing and selling of quality products, believing that good products are contributions to the citizens. Hence, he thought that a company may grow and develop through the pursuit of profits to increase employment, and contribute to the development of the national economy. He was confident that this is the way an entrepreneur may contribute to the country and people. With this conviction, he made Yuhan Corp. One of the best pharmaceutical companies in Korea.

Only healthy people can get the sovereignty back.

With the success of the La Choy Food Product Inc., Dr. Ilhan New earned the profit of about 500,000 USD within just four years after the foundation. When he temporarily visited to Korea to secure raw materials, he saw the miserable reality of his own country. Thinking that he had the duty of keeping his people healthy, he established Yuhan Corp., a pharmaceutical company, on December 10, 1926. Until 1936, all the properties of Yuhan Corp. were the personal possession of Dr. Ilhan New.

However, after the business was solidly founded, he made the plan to share the ownership with others and established the company as a corporation. He gave some of the shares as bonus stocks to the employees because he thought that the company was not his own but of the employees. This is the first example of employee stock ownership in Korea. In 1962, Yuhan Corp. opened the stocks for the first time among the pharmaceutical companies, separating the ownership from the management.

Dr. Ilhan New opened the stocks not because the owner's equity was insufficient but to accomplish the democratization of the company through the public stock ownership and open accounting. In addition, according to the founder's view on tax payment, opening the stocks directly linked to his love of the country, Yuhan Corp. considered 'honest and prompt tax payment' as the most important policy. Therefore, Yuhan Corp. was highly evaluated as 'Korea's first company implementing voluntary tax payment,' and 'Korea's first company opening the accounting books.' One notable thing is that Dr. Ilhan New's last position as CEO was succeeded by the executive director, Gwon-sun Cho in the 44th regular meeting of shareholders held on October 30, 1969. He was truly a patriotic entrepreneur who finished his course of business management without following the Korea's evil practice of leaving the office of presidency to one of the business owner's children.

An educated person may develop the capability to contribute to the society, while an uneducated person may wither without displaying the talent.

In the view of educational scholarship work, Dr. Ilhan New considered the fostering of human resources as important as managing a business. In particular, he felt the urgent need for establishing a special institute for fostering human resources in technologies, which were very few in Korea. In 1957, he established Goryeo Engineering Academy in Sosa region with his own fun, and devoted to the fostering of technical human resources, providing free education, lodging and meals to all students.

The name of the academy was changed to Korean Vocational School in 1961, and then to Korean High Technical School in March, 1964. In December, 1964, a new school building was built in Hang-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu where Yuhan Technical High School was started. This school established the department of mechanical engineering, electric engineering, architecture, and automobile engineering. It fostered excellent technical human resources by providing scholarship to all students. From 1967, Yuhan Middle School was also operated.

What matters is not how much you know. What truly matters is how you apply what you know.

Dr. Ilhan New thought that educational works are important than more than anything else among the corporate social responsibilities, and thus made a lot of efforts in education. In the period of poverty and adversity in Korea, immediately after the Korean War.

What was urgently needed was to exempt the educational fee and provide free food, clothing, and shelter to train poor children to grow to be technicians. Once the economy was developed and the living standards were elevated, it was more efficient to foster competent human resources and skilled workers in a regular technical high school to realize his own educational principles. That's why he put his energy to the foundation of a technical high school.

Yuhan Technical High School, where all students have been given scholarship, has been established and operated to return the company's profit to the society. Soon after the establishment of Yuhan Technical High School, Yuhan Vocational College was also established.

In addition, the Trust Fund for Korean Society and Education Aids (currently, Yuhan Foundation) and other public utility foundations were established to support education and scholarship works.

The profit from a company should be returned to the society that nurtured the company.

The Trust Fund for Korean Society and Education Aids (currently, Yuhan Foundation) is the educational foundation of Yuhan Technical High School. The fund was later separated from Yuhan School. Before his death, Dr. Ilhan New already donated 96,282 shares to the foundation. As a result, the foundation owned a total of 237,223 shares, which are 24% of Yuhan Corp.'s shares (960,000), becoming the largest shareholder. In addition, when he was alive, Dr. Ilhan New donated 41,000 shares to Yonsei University Foundation, 40,000 shares to Yuhan Technical High School, 27,218 shares to Yuhan Mutual Benefit Association, and 17,368 shares to the Health Fellowship Foundation. The percentage of the shares owned by these public institutions is as high as 45%, indicating the ownership and management system of Yuhan Corp. Dr. Ilhan New donated his shares to individual educational foundations including Yonsei University Foundation, with a condition, which was that the stocks should not be sold for a purpose beside medical welfare and education.

Dr. Ilhan New also made preparations to prevent his will from being distorted after his death. He returned to the society not only his properties but also the company he managed, believing that a company may be meaningless if it does not serve the society continuously. Therefore, he did not leave his company to his families or relatives. Such a principle that Dr. Ilhan New kept was well shown in his will testament.