Iris Chang found dead

[bhchao]

Iris Chang shot herself to death? Read this.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041111/ts_alt_afp/us_china_literature_041111150455

[jsku]

Just sad and tragic.......

Anybody know why??

[TSkillet]

SHe was having lots of depression problems - some articles hinted that it might have to do with her research into her book about the american army experience in the Philippines during World War II - she recently had a breakdown of sorts after doing research in Kentucky.

[ala]

Some comments from JapanToday.com (a Kyodo site).

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=1&id=318533&display=all

"She probably killed herself not because she was dumb, but because she was writing books full of lies and deceiving people. While no one tries to deny the attrocities the Japanese Imperial Army comitted during World War II, it's not hard to see that they have been blown out of all proportion, as has Unit 731, and Ysukuni Shrine (wow, a whole 7 war criminals enshrined there)." -soundcore

"All those trash in america probably polluated her mind to write such BS.As if the american never kill any innocent Indians, not to mention the millions vietnamese childrens and thousands of women american soldiers raped." -bonsaii

"The souls of the dead in Nanking punished her for write so many BS.

Bye bye..." -mad_boy

[Jack MacKelly]

nevermind that site, it's full of headcases...pro-bomb iraq group, weird foreign people who are sick of working in japan and

idiot right-winger japanese who cheer on their Tokyo mayor Ishihara as he comes out with the next racist outburst against, blacks, koreans, whites, chinese...or whatever you choose

She had some other nice books, the Chinese in America was out last year, a history of Chinese immigrants and their descendants in the USA .

[wushijiao]

This news sucks. I thought The Rape of Nanjing was a tremendously important book (I haven't read her others).

ODB died today as well, also young.

[Ian_Lee]

So tragic.....I have attended her seminar when she shuttled around US campuses in the mid-'90s promoting her book "The Rape of Nanking".

[js9001]

Please forward:

According to News from Internet:

Author Chang found dead aged 36

Author Iris Chang was known for her books on China

Best-selling US author Iris Chang has been found dead at the age of 36.

The writer was discovered in her car on a highway near Los Gatos in California and had a gunshot wound to her head.

Authorities believe the injury was self-inflicted. Chang had recently been treated in hospital after suffering from depression.

Chang was renowned for her books about the Japanese occupation of China as well as the history of Chinese immigrants in the US.

She was best-known for her 1997 international best-seller The Rape Of Nanking, which described the atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers during their occupation of the former Chinese capital in the 1930s.

'The best historian'

Chang started her career as a journalist, but left to pursue writing and published her first book at the age 25.

Thread Of The Silkworm told the story of Tsien Hsue-shen, the Chinese physicist who pioneered China's missile programme during the Cold War.

Her agent Susan Rabiner said she suffered a breakdown during research for her latest book about US soldiers fighting the Japanese in the Philippines.

She continued to suffer from depression after leaving hospital, and in a note to her family asked to be remembered for the person she was before she fell ill.

The late historian Stephen Ambrose described Chang as "maybe the best historian we've got".

"She understands that to communicate history, you've got to tell the story in an interesting way," he added.

A forum has been set up for discussion about Iris Chang at

http://www.IrisChang.us.

Author Iris Chang was known for her books on China