Elsie Chin Yuen Seetoo Collection

Details

Who's responsible?: Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries (Repository)
How much has been digitized?: Only a part of this collection has been digitized.
What's in the full collection?: 9 September 2005 oral history transcript; undated speech written by Elsie about her life story including living in Stockton, California and moving to China in 1931, joining the Chinese Red Cross during WWII, and subsequent events until 1946 when she left her family in China and moved back to the United States; photographs of Elsie during her service the Chinese Medical Relief Corps, circa 1939-1946.
Full biography: Elsie Chin Yuen Seetoo (b. 1918) of Stockton, California, served in the Chinese Red Cross Medical Relief Corps from 1942 to 1944 and in the United States Army Nurse Corps from 1944 to 1946. Elsie Chin Yuen Seetoo was born in Stockton, California, on 14 September 1918. In 1931, when she was twelve years old, Seetoo's family returned to Xinhui in the Guangdong Province of China, and she attended the Pooi To Middle School in Guangzhoun [Canton] for six years. After graduation in 1938, Seetoo entered nurse's training at the Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong and graduated in 1941. In April 1942 Seetoo joined the Chinese Red Cross Medical Relief Corps in Guiyang, where she worked in the operating room before joining a medical training unit. In early 1943 Seetoo was stationed in Ramgarh, India, to train orderlies. She returned to China after seven months and resigned from the Chinese Red Cross in February 1944. Seetoo joined the United States Army Nurse Corps in June 1944 and was stationed with the 14th Air Force as a member of the Air Service Command. She continued to serve in China with the 95th Station Hospital in Kunming and Chengdu, and with the 172nd General Hospital in Shanghai from October 1945 to February 1946. Seetoo returned to the United States in February 1946 and was discharged in May." After her military service, Seetoo married and attended the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro). She graduated in 1948 with a bachelor of science in nursing. Seetoo and her husband lived in the Washington, D.C., area and raised a family. She did freelance work for a translation agency for thirty years and was a technical publications writer for the Naval Medical Center.
Topics: Women's History
Military
Schools and Colleges
Branch of service: Army -- Army Nurse Corps
Other -- Chinese Red Cross Medical Relief Corps
Conflict: World War II era (1940-1946)
Subject headings: World War, 1939-1945
United States. Army--Women
Contributing Institution: Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries

Pages

: Army nurses in China; U.S. Army nurses (left to right) "Muzzy," Elsie Chin Yuen Seetoo, Wolverton, and Lymas pose in garden outside the temporary nurses quarters in Chengdu, China, in the spring of 1945. Lymas is holding the amah's (maid's) daughter.

: Elsie Seetoo and coworkers in China; Elsie Yuen Seetoo (left) with the base dentist (center) and nurse Josephine Wong (right, holding dog) pose at Chengkung Airbase, outside Kunming, China, in Spring 1944.

: Elsie Seetoo at Hong Kong Nurses Quarters; Elsie Yuen Seetoo, in nurse's uniform, stands by the nurse's quarters at Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong where she received her training.

: Elsie Seetoo in China; Elsie Seetoo, in uniform, pauses on a road outinside Kunming, Yunnan Province, China, in July 1944. Back of the photo reads "To Bill-A very Merry Christmas...Elsie, '44"

: Elsie Seetoo in China; Elsie Yuen Seetoo looks down at an object in her hand outside Kunming, China, shortly after she was commissioned in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in July 1944.

: Elsie Seetoo in Shanghai; Elsie Chin Yuen Seetoo, wearing her U.S. Army uniform, poses in Shanghai in January 1946.

: Elsie Seetoo on plane; Elsie Yuen Seetoo faces backwards as passenger in a B-25 airplane enroute to Calcutta in August 1944. The cockpit is clearly visible behind her, with Capt. James Jackson, U.S. Army Air Force, piloting.

: Elsie Seetoo on stretcher ramp; Elsie Yuen Seetoo, in nurses uniform, climbs the fire escape stairs that serve as the stretcher ramp for a hospital with no elevator, May 1945.

: Elsie Seetoo outside Chinese Red Cross, 1942; Elsie Yuen Seetoo stands beside a banner that idenitifies the Chinese Red Cross Medical Relief Corps headquarters in the summer of 1942.

: Elsie Seetoo outside clinic; Elsie Yuen Seetoo stands in front of a clinic for Chinese soldiers at the Infantry Training Center operated by the U.S. Army outside Kunming, China, in late 1943.

: Elsie Seetoo outside clinic for Chinese soldiers; Elsie Yuen Seetoo stands in front of a clinic for Chinese soldiers at the Infantry Training Center operated by the U.S. Army outside Kunming, China, in late 1943.

: Elsie Seetoo outside dormitory; Elsie Yuen Seetoo, in uniform, sits against a rail outside her dormitory at the Chinese Medical Relief Corps and Emergency Medical Training School in Guiyang, China, in the summer or fall of 1942.

: Elsie Seetoo outside tent in India; Elsie Seetoo kneels outside her tent quarters at Camp Ramgarh, India, in spring of 1943.

: Elsie Seetoo posing by a tree; Elsie Yuen Seetoo leans against a tree near Hostel Three outside Kunming, China, shortly after she was commissioned by the US Army Nurse Corps in July 1944.

: Elsie Seetoo posing on charcoal truck; Elsie Yuen Seetoo sits on a charcoal truck outside the headquarters of the Chinese Red Cross Medical Relief Corps in summer 1942. The vehicle has a red cross on the side, and behind it a large convoy of similar trucks can be seen.

: Elsie Seetoo with friends in China; Nurse Elsie Yuen Seetoo (left) with Wolverton (right) and another nurse in Chengdu, China, in 1945.

: Elsie Seetoo with rifle; Elsie Yuen Seetoo and a another soldier kneel on one knee while holding a rifle, demonstrating a basic training drill in Fall of 1942. This was part of her indoctrination into the Medical Service Training Unit for the Chinese Army.

: Medical Service Training Unit and plane; The 12 members of the Medical Service Training Unit of the Emergency Medical Service Training School at Guiyang (formerly Kweiyang) prepare to be flown to India. The unit stands in front of an airplane at Kunming Airfield, China, on Christmas Day 1942.

: Nuns at 95th Station Hospital; Four of the five Sisters of Charity stand outside at the 95th Station Hospital after being evacuated from their hospital in eastern China, which was threatened by Japanese advance and occupation, in late 1944 or early 1945.

: Nurses at Camp Ramgarh, India; Elsie Yuen Seetoo (center) sits with Micky (left) and Pyhllis Rogers (right) at Camp Ramgarh, India, where all three were stationed at the US Army's 22nd Field Hospital in June 1943

Pages

In collections

Women Veterans Historical Project