Vasili Yasevich

Vasili Yasevich (b. ca. 1920) was a Russian resident of Harbin, Manchuria at the outbreak of World War III. His parents, who'd supported the Whites during the Russian Civil War, fled to to Harbin after the war ended. Yasevich was a toddler at the time. He and his family survived the Japanese occupation of Manchuria. His father was a druggist, and he taught Vasili his trade. However, Vasili was more talented in carpentry. When the Red Army invaded Manchuria in August, 1945, the NKVD entered Harbin. Vasili's parents committed suicide. The now adult Vasili was left alone. He stayed in Harbin even after Chinese Communists took control of the town, and found plenty of work as a journeyman carpenter.

On January 23, 1951, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on several Manchurian locations, including Harbin. Yasevich was in Pingfan helping to repair the train station there. He was asleep when the attack began, and was awakened just prior to to atomic explosion in Harbin. In short order, he had to remind a Chinese builder, who'd almost certainly lost his entire family in Harbin, that he, Yasevich was Russian, not American.