The Japanese Occupation of Manchuria in the 1930’s wrenched Nina from a life of luxury to poverty. Born in Harbin, a culturally Russian city peopled by stateless White Russians who had fled the Bolsheviks, she grew up under the threat of the Occupation and the yoke of dysfunctional family’s emotional and physical abuse. Stripped of their wealth, her family fled to Shanghai where she suffered hunger, life in a crowded rooming house, and the ever-threatening results of Japanese domination – food shortages, cruelty, and fear. After the war ended, and the American Armed Forces entered Shanghai, her life was transformed when the hope she nurtured but never dared to voice came true – the American dream. The Japanese Occupation of Manchuria in the 1930’s wrenched Nina from a life of luxury to poverty. Born in Harbin, a culturally Russian city peopled by stateless White Russians who had fled the Bolsheviks, she grew up under the threat of the Occupation and the yoke of dysfunctional family’s emotional and physical abuse. Stripped of their wealth, her family fled to Shanghai where she suffered hunger, life in a crowded rooming house, and the ever-threatening results of Japanese domination – food shortages, cruelty, and fear. After the war ended, and the American Armed Forces entered Shanghai, her life was transformed when the hope she nurtured but never dared to voice came true – the American dream.