Posted on 11/11/2004 12:38:11 PM PST by EggsAckley
'The Rape of Nanking' author is found dead
Iris Chang, the bestselling Bay Area author whose book on Japanese atrocities in China during World War II catapulted her to fame and prominence, was found dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. She was 36.
Chang drove down a road south of Los Gatos and shot herself in her car, authorities said.
Santa Clara County sheriff's Deputy Terrance Helm said a motorist driving Tuesday morning on Highway 17 south of the Cats restaurant in an unincorporated area near Los Gatos noticed a car a short distance down a private water district road. He pulled over to check on the vehicle and called 911.
Investigators found a frontier-type six-gun and a note in the car, according to sources with knowledge of the case.
The official cause of death was pending.
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, her former editor and agent Susan Rabiner told the Associated Press.
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.
Chang's apparent suicide came as a great shock to her friends and colleagues.
``I can't believe it. She was such a shining star,'' said Ignatius Ding, a close friend since they met at a history conference in 1994.
excerpted LINK
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
No way. Another liberal suicide. Probably election related to a small degree.
I don't buy a woman going to a deserted spot and shooting herself. Doesn't compute. Sound more like a hit to me, too.
May she rest in peace.
BTW, for anyone interested in a great read, you will find none better than Hour of Redemption by Forrest Bryant Johnson. It is about the POW rescue at Cabanatuan and is the best book I've ever read.
Yes. I read Thread of the Silkworm as well. Over the years I have come to not respect her and she was becoming what's known as a chinese chauvinist or sympathizer. She was going crazy liberal and identifying with the liberal identity politics of race that the dems exploit so much.
Thank you ... library list! I agree, reading about the Japanese is very distressing. I like the parts of the Pacific War where we were trouncing them!
She was an ultra liberal and unfortunately had a long history of depression.
This news saddens me greatly. Somehow it does not surprise me.
how sad.. what was this book about?
I studied Asian history and languages is college (as a relief from accounting). My Japanese instructor, who was a preteen girl in Japan during the war, told me she always felt ashamed when she was with the Asian History professor, who was born in Korea with Korean and American parents. She (the Japanese teacher) was a good Christian woman (neat story behind that, if I had time right now), and she was tormented by what the Japanese had done to the Korean people, particularly to the women.
I love Ambroses work, especially Pegasus Bridge and The Wild Blue. I have a DVD set on WWII called The World at War which is narrated by Sir Larry Olivier and which carries a 1974 date. There is a segment with Ambrose and he had hair below his shoulders. I had to stare and stare to make sure it was really him. He was somewhat of a radical in his younger days.
Yeah, if you read the rest of the article, it's pretty clear that this was a depression-induced suicide.
Very sad. I don't care how liberal she was; she did a service by bringing that history to the front.
I had an uncle and his whole family held by the Japanese in Manila for over three years. I don't feel that Ms. Chang did any exaggerating with regards to the Japanese.
Goodness, how sad.
You're right about her 'chinese in america' book. I kept expecting to see her perspective shift on chinese progress and prospects, but even as she wrote about the 80s and beyond, it was all victicrat bullshit. Unbelievable!
Nevertheless, she was very talented and for the most part I enjoyed her books. Really surprising she'd commit suicide. (On the other hand, ultra-liberal as she was, maybe the election had something to do with it--if only it wasn't her, but Michael Moore instead).
There are a couple of other groups who could learn a lot from them.
I too read her book and what they call "The 2nd Rape of Nanking" is Japan's refusal to take responsiblity. I mean they had contests on who could behead the most Chinese, the Nazi's couldn't even stomach it.
She did good work that was extremely important for the human race. That book insured that atrociety would not go quitely into the night.
I don't know why she would commit suicide but I hope she's in a better place now and knows that she left her mark.
I like whoa better. I tell it to my horse all the time.
This is very sad...God bless her and her family and friends.
Why do people say she was an *ultra* liberal? Yeah, she stook up for Chinese American causes, but I never read anything that suggested she was a Michael Moore type of person. No one who praised Anne Applebaum's "Gulag" could possibly be an ultra leftist, considering the denial of Communist atrocities was a prerequisite to the "Jean Paul Sartre" mindset.
I would say to a large degree. She probably felt that we were doing the same thing in Iraq as the Japanese did in Nanjing. She was hoping the American people would elect Kerry and end the war and probably became more depreseed when the election didn't go her way.
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