Young-Oak Kim
American military officer
Young-Oak Kim (Korean: 김영옥; 1919 – December 29, 2005) was a United States Army officer during World War II and the Korean War as well as a civic leader and humanitarian. He was a member of the U.S. 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and a combat leader in Italy and France during World War II. He was awarded 19 medals, including the Distinguished Service Cross, two Silver Stars, two Bronze Stars, three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Medal of Military Valor, a Légion d'honneur, a Croix de Guerre, and (posthumously) the Korean Taeguk Cordon of the Order of Military Merit. After his military career, Kim dedicated his life to public service and was an active founder and leader of several non-profit organizations for underserved communities throughout Southern California. He died of cancer at the age of 86. In May 2016, members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus held a press conference, organized by the Council of Korean Americans, to call on President Barack Obama to posthumously award Kim the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Early life and education
Kim was born in Los Angeles in 1919. His parents were Soon Kwon Kim and Nora Koh. He had three brothers, two sisters, and one adopted brother, Andy Kil. One of his sisters was two-time Tony Award-winning costume designer Willa Kim. His father was a member of Daehanin-dongjihwe (대한인 동지회, literally: "The Great Korean People's Association"), the group Syngman Rhee established in Hawaii to help liberate Korea from Japan.
“Young-Oak Kim” enters the record as american military officer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Young-Oak, American and military can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q495010. VIAF identifies the subject as 26866447. The Library of Congress control number is no2008027196. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1919, 2005 and 2016.
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This entry incorporates text from “Young-Oak Kim” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.