Youth Peace Camp in Vladivostok

Seoul YWCA Youth Program team hosted Youth Peace Camp in Vladivostok. 

Deportation of Koreans in the Soviet Union, originally conceived in 1926, initiated in 1930, and carried through in 1937, was the first mass transfer of an entire nationality in the Soviet Union.  Almost the entire Soviet population of ethnic Koreans (171,781 persons) were forcefully moved from the Russian Far East to unpopulated areas of the Kazakh SSR and the Uzbek SSR in October 1937. The official reason for the deportation was to stem "the penetration of the Japanese espionage into the Far Eastern Krai", as Koreans were at the time subjects of the Japan, which was hostile to the Soviet Union. Estimates based on population statistics suggest that 40,000 deported Koreans died in 1937 and 1938 from starvation, exposure and difficulties adapting to their new environment.

So this time YWCA youth members visited the historic site and met with Koreans rooted in the region after the deportation. The new generations, even though they were not good at Korean language any more, tried to interact with Korean students and learned a little bit about Korea. All the participants hoped a peaceful and soonest reunification to freely exchange cultures between Vladivostok and Korea.