Elsie Chin Yuen Seetoo Collection
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Oral history interview with Elsie Chin Yuen Seetoo
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Primarily documents Elsie Chin Yuen Seetoo's early life and education in China; her service in the Chinese Red Cross from 1942 to 1944; her service in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps from 1944 to 1946; her education at the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina from 1946 to 1948; and her later work as a medical writer. Seetoo speaks about her parents' background in China; moving to China in 1931 after having been raised in the United States; her parents' decision to return to China; the voyage by ship across the Pacific Ocean; her family's adjustment to China; her Chinese schooling and the effects of the Japanese invasion in 1937 on her education; and her nursing studies at Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong, including her practical training and her daily schedule. She also describes hearing Japanese officers come into the quarters and meeting journalist Agnes Smedley, who was a patient in the hospital. Seetoo recalls the Japanese bombing of Hong Kong on 8 December 1941. She talks about working in the hospital with Canadian patients; the surrender of Hong Kong, and her escape from the city. Seetoo explains her decision to join the Chinese Red Cross Medical Relief Corps and describes her work in China and India in 1942 and 1943. Topics include working in hospital operating rooms in China for eight months; working shifts; being sent to rest camp and an incident of discrimination there; being questioned by Chinese Nationalists and then volunteering to serve in India; the seven months she spent training medical orderlies in Ramgarh, India; and being sent back to China. Seetoo also discusses losing her American citizenship and the process of applying to the U.S. Army Nurse Corps to regain her citizenship in 1944. She talks about her initial assignment to the Air Service Command; getting uniforms and altering them to fit; doing general duty nursing at a station hospital in Kunming, China, and with the 172nd General Hospital outside Shanghai, China in late 1945; seriously ill patients that had an impact on her, including psychiatric patients; and the process of being discharged from the Army Nurse Corps. Seetoo describes her return to the United States in 1946. She recalls her friendship with the daughter of Chinese author Lin Yutang and how she chose to attend the Woman's College (WC) on the GI Bill. Topics related to WC include the younger students; the GI Bill; other military women at WC; courses; and Cornelia Strong and astronomy. Personal topics include Seetoo's first husband; raising her children; her work translating Chinese articles in the early 1950s; her work with the Naval Medical Center doing technical writing and procedures manuals; being a part of both American and Chinese cultures; and the impact of her military service on the rest of her life.
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Staff in tent at Ramgarh, India
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Elsie Yuen Seetoo (center) and Chinese Army Capt. Sze (right) read a Chinese-English conversation text for U.S. Army Lt. Marrie (left) in their tent facility at Ramgarh, India, in spring of 1943.
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