The Young Oak Kim Biography papers (1944-1953, 1999), consist of military documents and audiovisual materials relating to Young Oak Kim’s involvement in World War II and the Korean War, collected and created by Woo Sung Han during the writing of the biography “Unsung Hero: the Col. Young O. Kim Story.” The majority of the material is comprised of military documents from the 1940s and 1950s, in the form of command and intelligence reports, relating to the US Army’s 442nd Regimental Combat Team and 31st Infantry, both of which Kim served under during World War II and Korean War respectively. These items have been declassified and were photocopied from the National Archives. Each report is hundreds of pages long, and remain loose inside archival boxes.

The significant date gap within the collection is reflected through the audiovisual materials, which were created in 1999 by Han during the research and writing process of his book. They comprise primarily audiocassette tapes of informal interviews with Kim as well as with Military colleagues and officials who served with him during World War II and the Korean War. The remainder of the collection consists of one VHS tape regarding Kim’s career with the 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and a typed transcript and floppy disk of an interview with General William McCaffrey, Kim’s commanding officer during the Korean War.