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

442nd’s contribution to redress

We succeeded to the extent that if it wasn’t for the 442nd there’d have been no redress. Redress was not a judicial issue no matter what anybody says. It would have never got to the Supreme Court, it a never been overruled. Maybe it should have gone back, but that isn’t in the works and isn’t the books and that isn’t the way the judicial system works. According to the judicial system, you’d have to have a similar case brought up all over again to go through the courts, and there’s not going to be another similar case. So it becomes a political issue.

And if it’s a political issue passed by Congress, then how much blood you shed and things like that count. If it wasn’t for the record of the 100th, 442nd, do you think Congress would have ever passed that? Nah. You’d have never won it on a pure logic, judicial reasoning, see. All the hard-liners would have held fast, but they can’t fight the losing of blood. And even the hard-liners when you get down to it, they say yeah, you’d be willing to Europe and fight and shed blood, but you wouldn’t fight the Japanese, see. But when you tell them about the MIS, then they have to give in, see. So yes, I say the contributions of the veterans from World War II has helped, but it hasn’t solved the problem.

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)