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

Young O. Kim

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

Appearance vs. Combat Effectiveness

In the military there’s a very, very strong belief that if you polish your shoes and press your pants and salute right and you’re clean, then you’re a good combat soldier. And so for the military, appearance in a sense is related to combat effectiveness. And nothing could be further from the truth. See? The 100th is the last…is the worst looking outfit, if you’re going to look at it from appearance, they’re the wrong height, they’re the wrong everything.

Now if you take the boys the islands, it’s even worse, cause over half the men in my platoon never wore shoes before, cause they were from a plantation. So they wouldn’t tie their shoelaces. See? Cause the feet hurt, I mean they really hurt, see. The other thing is that, since they didn’t tie their shoelaces, they didn’t blouse their pants inside their shoes or put leggings on. The other things too, it’s hot and humid in Shelby and so they wore their shirttails out like Hawaiian style, like I’m wearing now, see? And the other things is that they wouldn’t get a haircut, see?

So now I’ve got a crew that I’m trying to make get haircuts, put their shirttail in and tie their shoelaces and that’s almost an impossible task you know, it’s 44 against 1, you know and now trying to train a whole company I got a 180 of them, 190 of them you know, rebelling. And, sure I could get a few NCOs to do it and what not but I never succeeded in ever getting them properly “groomed” shall we say military style. But when I got in combat, I learned that those values are meaningless. That, that has no relationship to whether a man is combat effective.

100th Infantry Battalion 442nd Regimental Combat Team armed forces military United States Army 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)