As a young man in Taiwan, Lee You-pang suffered under Japan's colonial rule. The experience strengthened his resolve to resist. After moving to the mainland during the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, he organized a group of Taiwan compatriots in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, and together they formed an anti-Japanese unit called the Taiwan Volunteer Corps. One of their notable contributions to the resistance was treating civilians affected by the bacteriological weapons used by the Japanese.