Free Republic

A young historian's book on the 1937 atrocity unleashed a tide of repressed anguish and international recriminations that continue even after her suicide THOSE who knew Iris Chang used to worry about how she could cope with the gloom of her chosen work. But when they visited the house in California that she shared with her husband and saw him playing with their two-year-old son by the swimming pool in the backyard, they were reassured. The 36-year-old historian would sip lemonade with her friends at a Chinese café called the Tea House and, for a while, the torrent of terror...

S.J. author's death felt deeply on anniversary of Nanking atrocities By Jessie Mangaliman Mercury News More than 100 Bay Area residents gathered Saturday in Millbrae to commemorate the 67th anniversary of the "Rape of Nanking," atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers in China in the 1930s. But the already solemn occasion took on a sad and somber mood as organizers paid tribute to author Iris Chang, the most prominent voice of an international movement to force the Japanese government to apologize and pay wartime reparations. Chang, 36, author of the best-selling book "The Rape of Nanking," apparently took her own life...

Here's something compelling to think about on Pearl Harbor Day, Dec. 7: Last month on Veterans Day, the world learned of the tragic death, apparently by suicide, of Iris Chang, the youthful American author of Chinese descent who wrote the 1997 best-selling history The Rape of Nanking. Chang's book did more than any other work to reveal the facts of the 1937-38 Nanking massacre in which the Japanese Empire raped untold thousands and murdered perhaps as many as 300,000 unarmed Chinese civilians and soldiers. Many in Japan still officially deny the massacre took place despite historical evidence and eyewitness accounts...

A Sadness Set In Commentary John Harris Jr. The article began “Best-selling Chinese-American author Iris Chang was found dead in her car from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. She was 36 and had recently been treated for depression.” Iris Chang spoke at my college graduation, here at Cal State Hayward. It was just last June. I remember sitting, thoroughly disenchanted by the regalia-clad mob swelling around me. Given it was a time of excitement and celebration, to the ceremony clung the uneasy sense of a population madding. It was in the way people fought in the stands for seats no better...

Noted Author Iris Chang Dies Was 2004 Commencement Speaker By Cassia Clinton Staff Writer Cal State Hayward honorary alumna and bestselling author Iris Chang was found dead last week from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in a remote area outside of Los Gatos, said police. She was 36. Chang was awarded an honorary doctorate when she served as the keynote speaker at the CSUH commencement ceremony in June. In her speech, she challenged graduates to “Believe in the power of one.” “Your path to freedom lies in your belief in the power of one person to make a difference,” she...

Iris Chang, the Chinese American historical author, was found dead Wednesday, November 10 2004. The initial assessment was that she committed suicide in her car. 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? C'mon. I've heard more plausible explanations on reruns of the 1980's cop drama 'Hunter.' Or the film 'The Whole Nine Yards' for that matter. I'ts more believeable to say that Chang was found trying out for the Zimbabwe...

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....