Writer Yoon Tae-ho meets the press for an interview at Yuhan headquarters in Dongjak-gu, Seoul, on the 15th./Courtesy of Park Soo-hyun

Misaeng, Moss, Fine. Yoon Tae-ho is a "writer who dissects society." He drew desire on a Go board, dug into the moss-covered power in the mountains, and depicted the brawls of villains in a calm style. Now he has drawn a brand webtoon. NEW Ilhan, commemorating the 100th anniversary of Yuhan's founding. Serialized on KakaoPage every Sunday in eight episodes starting on Mar. 1, this work unfolds the life of founder Dr. Yu Il-han in a "drama pitching contest" format.

On the 15th, ahead of the final episode, we met writer Yoon Tae-ho. When asked "Why Yu Il-han in 2026," his voice gained force.

"People say we live in an age of uncertainty these days. But could there be uncertainty that surpasses the environment Dr. Yu faced? In the end, I think we see the world as uncertain because we feel anxious. All the more in such times, it's important to ask, 'How did that person build an inner life in that environment?'"

Yu Il-han (1895–1971). At age 9, he heads alone to study in the United States, graduates from the University of Michigan, and establishes himself locally as a successful entrepreneur running a food company. But in 1926, at 31, he returns to his homeland under Japanese rule and founds the pharmaceutical company Yuhan. His life then unfolds along three axes at once: entrepreneur, independence activist, and educator. In 1919, at the Korean Liberty Conference held in Philadelphia, he personally drafts and reads the resolution, and in 1945, at age 50, he volunteers as an operative for a secret infiltration mission by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). He lists company shares for the first time in the domestic industry to separate capital and management, and upon retirement, he hands the company to a professional manager rather than his children. When he passes away, he donates all his assets to educational and social foundations. His independence activities, kept quiet in his lifetime, are revealed posthumously by researchers./Courtesy of Yuhan

◇"After finishing the first meeting, I opened the materials… and thought, this is hell"

He said he readily accepted Yuhan's proposal a year ago because it felt familiar.

"For our generation, Dr. Yu is so familiar through Antiphramine or Yuhan's willow logo. That's why I took part. But as I reviewed the materials after the first meeting… I thought, 'Ah, this is hell.'"

Dr. Yu Il-han left not even a single interview, let alone an autobiography. Most existing biographies are built from testimonies by people around him. The only materials he wrote himself are a few letters and his will.

"It was so hard. I wrote every single character wondering, 'Is this right, is this person's thinking right, is it okay to make the character speak like this?' I read and reread the biographies, but answers didn't come easily, so it took quite a long time just to write the story."

In the story, CEO Kim Seon-ho of a one-person agency pitches a drama about Dr. Yu to investors. In a situation where large agencies have already staked claims on "giants" like Yi Sun-sin, Sejong, and Ahn Jung-geun, a small company brings out a lesser-known great figure. It's a device that overlaps with the person Yu Il-han himself.

"I concluded we should go with someone who, like me, doesn't know him. Let's portray him from the perspective of people who can only know Dr. Yu superficially."

Writer Choi Cheol, who helps CEO Kim Seon-ho, is depicted as a graduate of Yuhan Technical High School. "I think Yuhan's greatest social contribution is its school foundation. If someone directly benefited from that, they would see Dr. Yu not as a distant great figure but as someone who tangibly influenced their life. I thought exploring him through that lens was the most honest way."

There is another layer to the pitching-contest setup.

"I began to think, 'Why do we keep looking for people we respect from afar?' There is someone like this in our recent history, so why haven't we heard stories about this person until now?"

At a pitching competition, CEO Kim Seon-ho presents a drama proposal centered on Dr. Yu Il-han./Courtesy of KakaoPage

◇"What did the motherland ever do for him that he held on to it to the end?"

Writer Yoon Tae-ho said he was constantly curious about Dr. Yu's driving force. The question is why someone who crossed to the United States at the time, received advanced education, and even succeeded in business there, returned to the colonized motherland and staked everything.

"What did the motherland ever do for him that he held on to it to the end? His wife was Chinese, and there were many points where his values could have blurred. He wouldn't have been blamed even if he hadn't kept them."

The conclusion he reached was a "surrogate father," that is, a mentor. "Dr. Yu grew up in circumstances where it was hard to feel fatherhood. I was sure there was a surrogate father. I think perhaps Seo Jae-pil filled that role. They were close enough that his daughter personally drew the Yuhan logo."

Solidarity with independence activists who informed the U.S. Congress about Korea's reality. Yoon Tae-ho thought that was the force that kept him from letting go of his duties as an intellectual even in an era without a nation.

"For some people, more than 30 years of colonial rule is long enough to feel, 'There is no tomorrow that will change.' Maintaining one's values through that time is something that deserves tremendous applause. Wouldn't it have been possible thanks to the many mentors he saw and learned from in the United States?"

◇The root of Korea's Constitution, the thrill of "that sentence"

The climax of the work bursts at the pitching site. It is the scene where CEO Kim Seon-ho reveals the "Koreans' resolution." This resolution contains the sentence, "We believe that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed," and it is revealed that this became the root of the Constitution of the Republic of Korea later on.

"This fact was the most fascinating to me. So I hid it at the beginning and designed the structure to unveil it on the day of the pitch."

In the film The Attorney, Song Kang-ho shouted, "All power comes from the people." Its origin lies in the resolution written and read by Yu Il-han at age 24. He said he wanted to show readers this connection.

"The average education level of people in Korea is high now. So we don't have to show Dr. Yu digging tunnels and blowing things up. Just that shining sentence. Seeing the origin of what we kept chanting with candles lit at Gwanghwamun Square—so that's what it was—I thought it would be enough to convey just that resonance."

Group photo from the First Korean Liberty Conference held in Philadelphia, United States, in 1919./Courtesy of Internet Archive

◇Looking again at the giants

In a past interview, writer Yoon Tae-ho said, "We have to explore human universality to become global." What universality did he find in Dr. Yu?

"In fact, Dr. Yu is the person farthest from universality. His whole life is close to drama material. When we say hero, we mean someone who has reached a level that I can't easily follow. King Sejong and Admiral Yi Sun-sin are not universal at all. They are so great."

He paused for a moment and continued. "I thought we should find universality in us who admire him. The desire to resemble him, the awe, the hope that the next generation will look at him and develop a sturdier inner life. I saw universality there."

Thus, the first outsourced project of his life opened a new path for him.

"While working on this, I thought, 'Shouldn't creators pay more attention to the giants of our time?' Not giants as objects of praise, but people who have pros and cons yet are ones we should at least know."

"If someday the opportunity and the time come, and if there is someone who strikes my heart, then I thought it might be necessary to approach it not as an outsourced project but as an original work."

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