In 1913, at the age of 20, he came to San Francisco to study abroad and dedicated 60 years of his life solely to the independence of Korea while living in Los Angeles, Danuba, and San Francisco. After the March 1st Movement, he served as the local president of the Korean National Association in Danuba, gathering over 200 Koreans to hold a rally where he collected independence funds right on the spot. He would visit any place where Koreans lived to collect these funds and sent them to Lee Seung-man. He neglected his grape business and traveled throughout the year to wherever Koreans resided.
He traveled to places like Santa Barbara, Imperial Valley, Rhode Island, Manteca, and Stockton. A person named Choi Hak-seon, who lived in Danuba, promised to pay $400 and then earn another $400 to contribute, showing that Koreans at the time did not hesitate to donate to the independence fund. Even those who were gambling set aside money in a separate pot and would give it to Lee Beom-young when he came around. As funds were collected in California, he contacted the Shanghai provisional government in Washington and established the Korean-American diplomatic mission to send to Lee Seung-man. He was a close aide to Lee Seung-man and helped establish the Asian Anti-Communist Alliance in Jinhae in October 1954.
His wife, Mary Lee, sent a Buick car from the U.S. to her husband, who was in Seoul at the time, and Lee Beom-young became a topic of conversation for driving that car around.
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