This document is a collection of poems and reflections by Jeesue Kim about his father Taewoo Kim's life journey from Korea to America. It describes his father's experiences growing up in Korea during World War II, serving in the military, moving to America, and raising a family. The purpose of the document is to honor Taewoo Kim's life and accomplishments as a war hero, teacher, and dedicated father through historical context and personal anecdotes.

2. dedicated to my father, Taewoo Kim Father's Day, June 20, 2010 with gratitude, beyond words when lost in translation

3. My Life in Pictures and Verse 1 Introduction In understanding my father, it has taken many years, almost a lifetime. At first I tried to avoid it and sought my own destiny. As I searched for different journeys in different states and different countries, the wise sayings of my father and his adventures always stayed with me. A soldier's life is quite drastic and different from a civilian. This made it all the more difficult for me in trying to comprehend him when I lived with him in America. As a boy he grew up knowing he would have to fight in a major world war. Little did the world realize how great of a war it would be, bringing a permanent demarcation at the DMZ, dividing the country between North and South Korea. In such context I tried to view my father’s life, from a turning point in history after the Cultural Revolution in China, World War II, and the Philippines Insurrection. My life can never be in similar paths, but the fascination to history and human trauma made me adept in recording lives of the past in historical context. And so this book is created, to bring light upon my father who was a great war hero, a great teacher, and a dedicated father.

4. My Life in Pictures and Verse 3 Military training Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address

5. My Life in Pictures and Verse 4 My dear parents Our Father knows what’s best for us, So why should we complain. We always want the sunshine, But He knows there must be rain. We love the sound of laughter And the merriment of cheer... There is a reason for everything -

6. My Life in Pictures and Verse 6 Our Father tests us often With suffering and sorrow. He tests us not to punish us, But to help us meet Tomorrow. My wife and child

7. My Life in Pictures and Verse 7 My life in Burma For growing trees are strengthened When they withstand the storm. And the sharp cut of the chisel gives the marble grace and form...

8. My Life in Pictures and Verse 8 God never hurts us needlessly, And He never wastes our pain, For every lose He sends to us Is followed by rich gain...

9. My Life in Pictures and Verse 9 And when we count the blessings That God has so freely sent, We will find no cause for murmuring And no time to lament.

10. My Life in Pictures and Verse 10 For Our Father loves His children, And to Him all things are plain, So He never sends us Pleasures When the Soul’s deep need is pain...

11. My Life in Pictures and Verse 11 farewell to Burma So whenever we are troubled, And when everything goes wrong, It is just God working in us To makes our spirit strong.

12. My Life in Pictures and Verse My life in Korea

13. My Life in Pictures and Verse 14 A Psalm of Life … with my blessed family Tell me not, in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream! For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not what they seem.

14. My Life in Pictures and Verse 15 New additions Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul.

15. My Life in Pictures and Verse 16 Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, Is our destined end or way; But to act, that each tomorrow Find us farther than today.

16. My Life in Pictures and Verse 17 Art is long, and Time is fleeting, And our hearts, though stout and brave, Still, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave.

17. My Life in Pictures and Verse 18 In the world’s broad field of battle, In the bivouac of life, Be not like dumb, driven cattle! Be a hero in the strife! Hard Times

18. My Life in Pictures and Verse 19 Trust no future, howe’er pleasant! Let the dead Past bury its dead! Act, --- act in the living Present! Heart within, and God o’erhead! made me leave Korea

19. My Life in Pictures and Verse 21 In America

20. Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time; My Life in Pictures and Verse 22

21. My Life in Pictures and Verse 23 Footprints, that perhaps another Sailing o’erlife’s solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, shall take heart again. My life in San Francisco

22. My Life in Pictures and Verse 24 Let us then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate;

23. My Life in Pictures and Verse 25 Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

24. My Life in Pictures and Verse 26 My family in Sunnyvale We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that the nation might live.

25. My Life in Pictures and Verse 27 It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

26. My Life in Pictures and Verse 28 But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow- this ground. Our lives in San Jose

27. My Life in Pictures and Verse 29 The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

28. My Life in Pictures and Verse 30 It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. in Campbell

29. My Life in Pictures and Verse 31 It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us ...

30. My Life in Pictures and Verse 32 That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion...

31. My Life in Pictures and Verse 33 That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain... a visit to Korea

32. My Life in Pictures and Verse 34 that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom…. and a farewell

33. My Life in Pictures and Verse 36 in retirement

34. The Life of Taewoo Kim