CA: Author/journalist found dead of gunshot wound in Los Gatos (Iris Chang/The Rape of Nanking)

Mercury News ^ | 11/10/04 | Chuck Carroll

[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.

[SuziQ]

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.

I wonder if the subject just wore her down. A friend of my late parents was one of those soldiers in the Bataan Death March. He survived and came home to raise a family, but was haunted until his death by the experience.

[Former Dodger]

I'm sorry for OUR loss, as well as her family's. The Rape of Nanking was an amzing work and it must have been stressful telling such an unpopular story, to the "PC History Police" anyway

God be with you, and I hope you are at peace.

[MEG33]

Clinical depression can be deadly.

[WorkingClassFilth]

It would seem so. Too bad for this promising young lady and those she leaves behind.

[WorkingClassFilth]

See post #24.

[Swede Girl]

So sorry to learn of this.

[RockAgainsttheLeft04]

This is sad news, and I'm not just bandying the phrase about. She was a talented, committed, and important author who helped to bring a great overlooked atrocity to light, and she helped the surviving victims of the (now, thanks to Iris) infamous Rape of Nanking obtain the acknowledgement they deserve.

I don't know why she felt like she had to end it all.
Life is such sorrow, I know.

[stands2reason]

Ms. Chang chose to shoot herself at all, much less in the head. Women just don't do that, hardly ever, at all.

In my personal experience you're wrong, though I'm curious as to where you think women do shoot themselves and why.

[stands2reason]

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.

I'd say, second resort (after not being able to keep the pills down), and I don't see why any women would NOT choose the head. The object is to DIE, not to be maimed for life.

[conservative cat]

How very sad. What a waste of a brilliant mind. I didn't realize she was that young. I read the book a few years back.

[ConservativeGadfly]

I thought the same thing. My step-brother's grandfather was the ranking officer at Bataan and extra-special treatment was reserved for him.

In addition, my father spent a great deal of time in there in WWII as an OSS agent. Never got a lot of stories out of him, but the ones that I managed to wrest out of him explained why he slept with a gun under his bed until the day he died.

[reaganaut]

I wonder if the subject just wore her down.

Quite possibly, I am a death historian (Thanatologist) and there are times when you need to take a break from the subject, which is hard when you are trying to get a book done.

[processing please hold]

Gunshots are very violent. Women usually do more subtle suicides.

[dennisw]

You friend suffered first hand on the Bataan Death march. She suffered second hand and not physically via starvation and Jap cruelty. Nor the way the people of Nanking did.

[Mr. Silverback]

I'm not saying that this couldn't be fouls play, but check this para from the Yahoo account:

Her agent, Susan Rabiner, said Chang had suffered from "classical clinical depression" and had been hospitalized earlier this year. She said Chang left a note to her family asking that she be remembered as she was before her illness.

Seems like the background facts fit suicide. Here's the most horrible part: Her son is only two years old.

[Mr. Silverback]

Here's another photo. According to Reuters, this was her official "author's headshot."

Rest in peace, Iris.

[Mr. Silverback]

Attractive woman in her prime and with recent success and a promising future. Very strange indeed.

Clinical depression is one of the strangest things going.

[Mr. Silverback]

She was an embezzler and found out that the company knew what she was doing. Rather than face the consequences of her actions she committed suicide leaving behind two teenage children and two toddlers.

In her case, she probably chose a firearm "to be sure," so she wouldn't be revived and prosecuted.

[Mr. Silverback]

May I ask what you've written about specifically? If you wish, send me freepmail.

[Poohbah]

She was excorated and reviled by the Japanese community, and by many in academia for her exposure of these atrocities; they did not want to ever lose the image of the Japanese as "innocent" victims of atomic attack at the hands of Evil Americans. The constant harrassment from those who hated her "politically incorrect" account of history must have been draining - just read some of the reviews online, and you will understand what may have contributed to her untimely death.

I loved the guy on Amazon who posted as a "review" the news report about the Chinese submarine...as if what the Japanese did to Nanking was justified by a Chinese nuclear submarine entering Japanese waters 67 years later...