Born in 1905, Kim San (Jang Jirak) left his family in Korea as a teenager and crossed the border into China, where he joined Mao’s Red Army. A participant in or witness to some of the most critical events of the Chinese Revolution, he became a leader in the fight against Japanese colonial rule, and was executed in China in 1937. He was awarded a posthumous “Patriot” award by the South Korean government in 2005.