Rita Wong, 95; Chinese nurse cared for ‘Flying Tigers’ in World War II
Rita Wong, 95, the only Chinese nurse who cared for the famous “Flying Tigers” -- U.S. airmen who defended Chinese supply routes over the Himalayas during World War II -- died Tuesday.
The China Daily said Wong, also known by her Chinese name Huang Huanxiao, died in Kunming in southwestern Yunnan province. The cause of death was not given.
Wong was born in Guangdong in southern China and earned a nursing degree from the University of Hong Kong in 1941.
She applied to the headquarters of Allied forces, which needed English-speaking nurses, and was sent to a hospital of the U.S. 14th Air Force, then stationed in Kunming.
“The flights were very dangerous, and planes crashed almost every day. Often the airmen were never found,” Wong wrote in her diary, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.
After the war, she continued working as a nurse.
In the 1970s, when Wong was 67, she established a toy factory in Macao with money that her sisters sent from overseas.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
