Sorry to see we have lost her at such a young age, what a tragedy.
Condolences & Sympathy to the Chang family and all her friends.
Posted on 11/10/2004 7:57:43 PM PST by NormsRevenge
Iris Chang, whose haunting childhood memories of oral stories about the rape and slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians at the hands of Japanese soldiers compelled her to write an acclaimed book about the atrocity, was found dead Tuesday from a self-inflicted gunshot.
Chang apparently drove down a road south of Los Gatos and shot herself to death in her car.
Santa Clara County Deputy Terrance Helm said a motorist driving Tuesday morning on Highway 17 south of The Cats restaurant in unincorporated Los Gatos and noticed a car a short distance down a private water district road. He pulled over to check on the vehicle and called 911 when he realized what had happened.
Helm said investigators concluded Chang had shot herself with a single-shot to the head, and that there was ``other evidence'' to support that conclusion.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Sorry to see we have lost her at such a young age, what a tragedy.
Condolences & Sympathy to the Chang family and all her friends.
What a shame. The Rape of Nanking is a fine work of history.
OMG, why? R.I.P., Iris Chang.
This is very sad, and very suspicious, too. I don't know why anyone would want to murder Ms. Chang, but the odds of a woman killing herself in this way are infinitesimal.
I suppose that the "other evidence" cited by authorities must be compelling, but it would be quite remarkable if Ms. Chang chose to shoot herself at all, much less in the head. Women just don't do that, hardly ever, at all.
God rest her soul.
Jeez, how sad.
If she did kill herself, that is a tragedy also, because she was the historian that brought the Nanking atrocity to modern public attention.
Born in Princeton, N.J., in 1968 and raised in Champaign-Urbana, Ill., Chang earned a bachelor's degree in journalism at the University of Illinois and a master's in science writing at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Chang worked briefly as a reporter for The Associated Press and the Chicago Tribune before leaving daily journalism to pursue her own writing. At age 25, she published her first book, "Thread of the Silkworm," which tells the story of Tsien Hsue-shen, the Chinese-born physicist who pioneered China's missile program after being driven from the United States during the Cold War.
In 1997, Chang published the international bestseller "The Rape of Nanking," which described the rape, torture and killing of hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians by Japanese soldiers in the former Chinese capital during the late 1930s. "The Chinese in America," published last year, is a history of Chinese immigrants and their descendants in the United States.
The late historian Stephen Ambrose described Chang as "maybe the best young historian we've got, because she understands that to communicate history, you've got to tell the story in an interesting way."
Chang suffered a breakdown and was hospitalized during a recent trip researching her fourth book about U.S. soldiers who fought the Japanese in the Philippines during World War II, according to her former editor and agent Susan Rabiner.
Chang continued to suffer from depression after she was released from the hospital. In a note to her family, she asked to be remembered as the person she was before she became ill -- "engaged with life, committed to her causes, her writing and her family," Rabiner said.
I guess that clinical depression could explain it. How very sad.
What a waste.
Very sad, to lose such a beautiful and gifted person.
Is there an epidemic of suicides? I seem to read three or four suicide threads a day here lately.
God help all those who are so full of despair that they cannot wait upon His mercy in this life.
Too many demons.
Not usually, but one of my Mama's friends did just that about a year after her husband's sudden death. She just felt like she didn't have anything to live for after he was gone, and her three kids and two grandkids didn't fill the void. Very sad.
Such a loss..
I know the book. Didn't know she was this young.
yup
yup
I heard her interviewed on Dennis Prager (I think) when her book came out. How sad this is.
Ditto.
I thought firearms were the last resort for women taking the last resort. In addition, I seem to remember that they didn't usually choose a head shot if they did choose a firearm.
Attractive woman in her prime and with recent success and a promising future. Very strange indeed.
Very interesting young lady.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.