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.

[8] 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.

After spending half a year in the Army as an engineer, Kim was selected for the Infantry Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia.

"[11] The 100th Battalion was sent to North Africa to assist in the war in Europe, but initially the U.S. Army had no plan for its deployment due to racial discrimination at the time.

Young Oak Kim was then promoted to first lieutenant and participated in the Battle of Monte Cassino as part of the U.S. attempt to liberate Rome from German control.

Lieutenant Kim, as an officer in the joint U.S. 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team, volunteered to capture German soldiers to gain military intelligence.

He sustained severe wounds from enemy fire in Biffontaine, and later spent a six-month leave in Los Angeles in late 1944.

Germany surrendered shortly before he was to return to the European Theater of Operations, and Captain Kim was consequently honorably discharged from the U.S. Army.

For his actions, Captain Kim received a second Purple Heart and a French Croix De Guerre, along with a plaque dedicated to him on the Biffontaine church wall.

At his request, he was sent to East Asia, and by pretending not to know any Korean and with the help of people he had known from World War II, he was able to join the infantry.

The 7th Infantry Division redrew the situation map every day, but only recorded the locations of regiments or larger military units.

[14] After serving in the Korean War, Major Kim became an instructor at the U.S. Army Infantry School in Fort Benning, Georgia.

Kim returned to Korea in the early 1960s as a U.S. military advisor to the South Korean army, during which he was promoted to the rank of colonel.

[17] He attended California State University Dominguez Hills to study history, but left after a year because he wanted to focus his energy on a greater cause.

George Nishinaka, the head of SSG at the time, helped Kim become more involved with community service by nominating him to be a board member of United Way.

He recognized the underserved ethnic communities in Los Angeles and worked to provide them with linguistically and culturally competent services.

As one of the largest ethnic charity organizations today, it continues to help new immigrants obtain basic health care and offers them bilingual services in English, Spanish, and Korean.

From 1989 until 2005, he served as Chairman of 100th/442nd/MIS Memorial Foundation, a veteran’s association of Japanese American soldiers who fought during World War II.

[24] Kim died from cancer on December 29, 2005, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and rests at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Punchbowl) in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The book is called "Unsung Hero: the Col. Young O. Kim Story," and was originally written in Korean by Woo Sung Han and was translated to English by Professor Edward T.

[29] The nomination was formally announced on May 17, 2016, at a press conference in Washington, DC by members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus[30] and is part of a series of tributes CKA plans leading up to what would be Kim's 100th Birthday on January 29, 2019.