Hwang Mai's 1937 That Never Ended

They were loaded onto livestock transport trains without a single window and traveled more than 6,000 km over a month or more. This tragic journey transformed the lives of the Koryo-saram and scattered them across Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and other regions.

He was not only an outstanding athlete but also a coach who trained more than 100 world-class athletes. He received the Order of Cultural and Sports Development and his name was listed among the 10 Honorary Sportspeople.

Hwang Un-jeong died in Kazakhstan in 1989, and his remains were enshrined in the Republic of Korea in 2019. Grandfather Hwang Mai, who lost his father at eight and boarded the deportation train alone, still remembers it vividly.

Before the deportation, Soviet authorities deceived the Koryo-saram, telling them they were being sent somewhere warm and that they should not bring clothing or food, which made the horror of the deportation even worse.

When people died in the train over the month-plus journey, there were no shovels to bury them, so stone cairns had to be piled up as graves. Young Hwang Mai recalled having to endure his fear by singing songs inside the train.

Grandfather Hwang Mai testified to the painful experience of losing family members and companions inside the deportation train.

The song sung to remember the tragedy endured during the train journey survives to this day, and the wound that could never be erased became a driving force to survive, leading him to great achievements in sports.

This region had harsh terrain with a large temperature gap between summer and winter, but thanks to the Karatal River, rice farming was possible. The Koryo-saram dug channels by hand to bring water from the Karatal River and cultivated the land.

The skills and labor of Koryo-saram who had experience in collective farming in Primorye played a decisive role in turning the barren land of Ushtobe into fertile farmland.

The Koryo-saram preserve and have recreated the tugu, the temporary dwellings they built right after their deportation, which show the harsh living conditions of that time.

To survive the severe winters that drop to minus 40 degrees Celsius, they dug spaces into the ground and installed hearths and ondol heating, and multiple families lived together in cramped tugu dwellings to sustain their lives.