[gopwinsin04]

This theory is probably discounted by the long, carefully written suicide note that was found..

[isom35]

Vince Foster comitted suicide (well kinda, it was assisted suicide).

[sully777]

This theory is probably discounted by the long, carefully written suicide note that was found...

...and the death threats from the Japanese back in the day Rape of Nanking was published.

Pure case of Fosteritis

[sinanju]

This theory is probably discounted by the long, carefully written suicide note that was found..

We need to hold off till the evidence is in. The author does have a point in criticizing the apparently contradictory official release. But if there was a (not ripped into an uneven number of pieces at the bottom of a briefcase without any fingerprints on it) suicide note and the episodes of depression were for real. If the gun (and don't tell me girls NEVER shoot themselves, she clearly was not fooling around) was not being held in an unusual way, etc. etc. then it would look pretty open and shut. Even insinuating racial crap on the part of the authorities in the Bay Area sounds ludicrous.

[Law is not justice but process]

It is a shame whether it was suicide or murder. She certainly gave many Japanese Nationalists a motive with her book "The Rape of Nanking."

I think "The Rape of Nanking" should be required reading for anyone interested in history. What the Japanese did in Nanking and other parts of Occupied China was every bit a brutal as the Holocaust. It was perhaps not as organized and certainly not as well documented, though. Iris Chang did as much as anyone to preserve and disseminate what evidence there was. For that she deserves to be remembered by all. Japan has no desire to face up to what was done by their troops in China and Korea (and the Philippines, and Borneo, and the Solomons. . . ). I certainly hope others will take her place in publicizing Japanese War crimes.

[cyborg]

I sense this man straining from the weight of that chip on his shoulder.

[TheDon]

A best selling and critically acclaimed author whose sole literary desire is to prevent Chinese history from being rewritten or forgotten would somehow find life too meaningless or difficult to continue living and thus mysteriously kill herself?

The author obviously has no experience with clinical depression.

[SilentServiceCPOWife]

It's possible that she was murdered, but I don't believe that racism has anything at all to do with the judgement that she killed herself.

The guy that turned himself in to the police after seeing The Passion was white and the girlfriend that he murdered was white. Yet the police said initially that she had committed suicide. And they would have held to it if the guy hadn't turned himself in.

[Siobhan]

Actually I thought these very things when I read of the report of Iris' alleged suicide. Of course, such is not impossible but it is possible to force a person to write a suicide letter etc etc. Quite a few Japanese Shinto nationalists hated Iris with a perfect hate. There are all sorts of scenarios worth checking out before so easily throwing out this finding of suicide IMHO

[PianoMan]

A demagogue wanna be. Let's hope he doesn't get far.

[azhenfud]

Arkancide

[Revolting cat!]

It's a senseless loss and some idiot has to be first to put on a tin foil hat. What else is new? What took him so long?

Beyond that, do we want our historians to pursue personal missions that can drive them to emotional problems and suicide or on the other end giddiness? I for one don't care much for that kind of history, but it seems to be the only kind celebrated nowadays. Gimme Paul Johnson any day...

[EggsAckley]

The writer is not familiar with the locale where her car was found. It is NOT an "isolated spot" near a small town. Had someone "taken" her there, it would not have been totally inconspicuous.

I sympathize with his frustration, but I think he's projecting a lot in this tragedy.

[skeeter]

For example, with such a premature judgement of suicide as the initial assessment of Chang's death, conspiracy theorists are free to argue that white officials don't care for minorities.

I'd like to see the author's evidence that it was white officials that made the premature judgment.

After all, the local media constantly heralds the diversity of the Bay Area.

[happygrl]

bttt