Interviews

1. Basic Training

2. A visit to Jerome after OCS

3. Resisting transfer from Jerome

4. Appearance vs. Combat Effectiveness

5. Fully aware of discrimination in America

6. They had to succeed

7. Do it for all Asians

8. People with talent in the 100th infantry battalion

9. “Agreement of silence”

10. Horrible pictures of war

11. Near-death experience

12. General Ryder’s faith in the 100th infantry battalion

13. 442nd’s contribution to redress

14. Comfortable in combat

15. “Equal as a human being”

16. Commitments for a better life

Kim,Young O.

(1919 - 2006) World War II and Korean War veteran

Horrible pictures of war

People don’t die real nice and pretty like in Hollywood pictures and what not, they’re mangled horribly. I can recall one instance where an artillery shell hit the individual running in front of me, it was 10 yards away. His body absorbed the shell cause the shell exploded. His upper half of the body from his waist disappeared, the legs kept running for 10 more yards. But I’m just saying that as one example, but you see that constantly all the time around you, horribly mangled bodies…not some stranger, your friend. Your buddy, the one that saved your life, maybe hours ago or days ago, see? And so we’re asking people to reproduce this nightmare in their brain? They don’t wanna. They hate talking about that. It’s so horrible, they can’t talk about it.

100th Infantry Battalion 442nd Regimental Combat Team armed forces combat military retired military personnel United States Army veterans war World War II

Date: August 28, 1995

Location: California, US

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Colonel Young Oak Kim (U.S. Army Ret.) was a decorated combat veteran as a member of the 100th Infantry Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team during World War II and a respected community leader. He was born in 1919 in Los Angeles, CA to Korean immigrants.

Following the outbreak of war, he was assigned to the “all-Nisei” 100th as a young officer, but was given a chance for reassignment because the common belief was that Koreans and Japanese did not get along. He rejected the offer stating that they were all Americans. A natural leader with keen instincts in the field, Colonel Kim’s battlefield exploits are near legendary.

Colonel Kim continued to serve his country in the Korean War where he became the first minority to command an Army combat battalion. He retired from the Army in 1972. He was awarded 19 medals, including the Distinguished Service Cross, a Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, three Purple Hearts, and the French Croix de Guerre.

Later in life, Colonel Kim served the Asian American community by helping to found the Go For Broke Educational Foundation, the Japanese American National Museum, the Korean Health, Education, Information and Research Center and the Korean American Coalition among others. He died from cancer on December 29, 2005 at the age of 86. (August 8, 2008)