Iris Chang died on November 9, 2004. Please forgive me.[21]. "I urged her to talk with someone -- either Brett, or me, or someone. Her book is internationally recognized as the most detailed Western account of the 1937 Nanking . . Tsien was a top physicist at Cal-Tech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who was deported during the Red scare of the 1950s. The official cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot. He noticed condensation on the windows, peered inside and saw Iris in the driver's seat with her hands crossed in her lap. Photos for a profile of Iris Chang, a prominent author and historian, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Blood covered her clothes. Her last, widely-acclaimed book focused on Chinese immigrants and t heir descendents in the United States their sacrifices, their achievements and their contributions to the fabric of American culture, an epic journey spanning more than 150 years. I promise not to visit Web sites that talk about suicide. At 14, Iris was studying advanced math and decided to join an all-boys computer club called Submit. Smith said the colonel spent only a short time with her. 36 year-old Iris Chang, the prominent Chinese American author and journalist who wrote the best-selling . But soon she found herself drawn to a subject just as dark. News of her suicide brought forth a chorus of disbelief. It's very hard to believe that there is something wrong with your mind," said Dr. David Lo, director of Santa Cruz Mental Health Services and former director of Chinatown Mental Health Center in San Francisco. Then she got back up again. Iris would be interviewing them, somebody else would be filming them, somebody else would be photocopying records, and somebody would be sending documents down to UPS. In 2017, the Iris Chang Memorial Hall was built in Huai'an, China. The report stated that Iris had been taking two medications: the mood stabilizer Depakote, an anticonvulsant similar to lithium; and a smaller dosage of Risperdal, an antipsychotic drug commonly used to control mania, which is also thought to reduce suicide risk. Her parents saw her off that morning. "She was very tired," her mother said. Chang, 36 . He established an International Safety Zone in Nanking before the Japanese soldiers arrived from Shanghai. It was obvious she wasn't the same person that she was before," he said. Iris Chang (Author, . Soon she managed to call her mother. In 1991, Chang married Bretton Lee Douglas, a design engineer for Cisco Systems, whom she had met in college, and had one son, Christopher, who was two years old at the time of her suicide. He stopped and honked but there was no response. "The stress of writing this book and living with this horror on a daily basis caused my weight to plummet," she said. I can never shake my belief that I was being recruited, and later persecuted, by forces more powerful than I could have imagined. Iris was "shocked and depressed" to see their living conditions in Nanking. [16][17], Chang suffered a nervous breakdown in August 2004, which her family, friends, and doctors attributed in part to constant sleep deprivation, dozens of herbal supplements,[18] and heavy doses of psychologically damaging prescription medication. Asians were the first immigrant community that 'made it,' and we should all be doctors and lawyers." "He immediately agreed to read my manuscript and write the introduction when I asked him.". "You'll have to forgive me, but I find myself often deeply affected by these stories. Let go, We all said, 'Take a break.' The pool, a turquoise rectangle surrounded by pines, sat at the center of the village-like complex. December 8-9, 2007, The Weekend Australian. Robert Spencer / The Chronicle MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SF CHRONICLE/ -MAGS OUT. "Iris could write two or three stories a day, and they loved her because she wrote so fast," he said. "He reminded me to eat and to take a walk when I was writing all day, forgetting everything else.". "During the massacre some had received physical injuries so severe they had been prevented from making a decent living for decades. Is the Stanley Quencher tumbler worth its TikTok hype? She passed the iron gates of Calvary Catholic Cemetery, where marble statues of winged angels, their heads bowed in prayer, mark the graves of early settlers. But lunch lasted through dinner. Paula Kamen. If they had let her get into Submit, she may not have become a journalist," he added. Though her work life was not without controversy, she seemed to be a very successful woman, driven by the need to share the dark corners of history with the world. Before dawn, Iris awoke and got into her car. After her death, she became the subject of tributes from fellow writers. A report from the San Francisco Chronicle stated that news of her suicide had a strong impact on survivors of the Nanking Massacre and the Chinese community in general.[20]. She was a journalism graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana and worked briefly as a reporter in Chicago before winning a graduate fellowship to the writing seminars program at The Johns Hopkins University. But that meant diving back into her Bataan Death March research. She had suffered from years of depression and constant sleep deprivation since her bestseller - full title The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War Two - was published in 1997. Her mother hoped Iris would take on a lighter topic for her next book, especially with a baby in the house. Hundreds gathered for the memorial service and burial. I thought it would break the spell, break the hold of these emotions. Finally, the group stood to sing a halting but heartfelt rendition of "Amazing Grace.". What made it much easier is that we did have a wonderful nanny to help. ", Three days before Iris' death, Brett dreamed up a special weekend, just for her. She is best known for her best-selling 1997 account of the Nanking Massacre, The Rape of Nanking. In 2007, the documentary Nanking was dedicated to Chang, as well as the Chinese victims of Nanking. Iris met the man she would marry in 1989, when she was a sophomore in journalism at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. Iris Chang was the daughter of two university professors, Ying-Ying Chang and Dr. Shau-Jin Chang, who moved from mainland China to Taiwan and eventually emigrated to the United States. As a youngster, Iris had sought books on the subject in her school library. The Police Department drafted a missing person's report. ", On her trip to China, she met with survivors from Nanking. [20], On November 9, 2004, at about 9 a.m., Chang was found dead in the driver's seat of her Oldsmobile Alero car by a Santa Clara Valley Water District employee on a rural road south of Los Gatos, California and west of State Route 17, in Santa Clara County. ", Iris had convinced her doctor to reduce her dosage. Iris Shun-Ru Chang (Hanzi tradisional: . For reviews of the book, visit irischang.net/news/index.php. "There are a fair number of people who don't take kindly to what she wrote in 'The Rape of Nanking,' " Brett said, "so she's always been very, very private about our family life. Reporter Richard Rongstad eulogized her as "Iris Chang lit a flame and passed it to others and we should not allow that flame to be extinguished.". Chang said she never took any antidepressants when devastated by Iris' death. She hadn't ever heard much of Ray Charles' music before, and when we got home, she went upstairs and was browsing all kinds of information on Ray Charles on the Internet.". "The doctors wanted her to continue in therapy, so sometimes they would go along with her. I promise not to hurt myself. Classical AF dissonance between pride in her culture and inability to integrate. Slowing down, he repeated, "It's interesting. Chang said she did some research on the psychiatric drugs and the antidepressants Iris took in the months between a temporary nervous breakdown and her suicide. He thought Iris was improving.". It was hard for her not to react every single time. They are the ones who brought her up." Kuang's debut novel, The Poppy War, is dedicated to Iris Chang. Whether it was the CIA or some other organization I will never know. ", Later, Iris challenged the Japanese ambassador to a debate on the "MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour" on PBS. "I spent several hours with each one, getting the details of their experiences on videotape. ", Barbara Culliton, now editor in chief of Genome News Network, was then director of the Johns Hopkins science writing program. One by one, each dropped a single purple iris or one red rose into the grave, saying, "Goodbye, Iris.". Culliton was sufficiently impressed by Iris' talent to recommend her to Susan Rabiner, editorial director of Basic Books, the "serious nonfiction" division of HarperCollins Publishers. In the picture, Iris was standing, her head bowed in prayer like a saint or an angel. Hundreds gathered for the memorial service and burial. Stories about Chang's grandparents' harrowing escape were part of her family legacy and prompted her to embark on this ambitious project, for which she interviewed elderly survivors of the massacre and discovered thousands of rare documents in four different languages. He could see the travel was taking a toll on her. christopher douglas iris chang; christopher douglas iris chang. Deep down I suspect that you may have more answers about this than I do. Iris Chang. That book would sell half a million copies. Everything points to suicide.". Getting ready for the trip, Iris went into overdrive. "To see her on TV, defending 'Rape of Nanking' so fiercely and so fearlessly -- I just sat down, stopped, in awe," said Helen Zia, author of "Asian-American Dreams: Emergence of an American People" and co-author, with Wen-Ho Lee, of "My Country Versus Me: The First-Hand Account by the Los Alamos Scientist Who Was Falsely Accused. After he and his fellow soldiers had been starved and beaten for months, a Japanese guard knocked him to the ground, piercing his chest with his bayonet. (Another of Changs unfinished projects was a book on defeating the biological clock.) ", Rabiner became worried, too. They kept in touch every day by e-mail. ", The Gate of Heaven was well named. Iris discovered this group of Chinese American activists after she and Brett moved to Northern California when he got a job with Cisco Systems. The foyer was filled with enormous bouquets sent by well-wishers. I have no evidence of foul play. Schell reviewed her book favorably in the New York Times. At the Gate of Heaven Catholic Cemetery in Los Altos Hills, the photograph stood on an easel before the chapel. She was 36. She committed suicide on November 9, 2004. The war she lost raged withinby Heidi Benson. The next morning, Friday, Nov. 19, dawned cold, clear and sunny. But even before the publication of "The Chinese in America: A Narrative History," Chang had established herself as an invaluable source of information about Asia, human rights, and Asian American history. "Most lived in dark, squalid apartments cluttered with the debris of poverty and heavy with mildew and humidity," she wrote. She preferred to meet someone in each town who could introduce her to the veterans and their families. When you do not, you live not just by the day but by the minute. Her first, Thread of the Silkworm (Basic Books, 1995)[8] tells the life story of the Chinese professor, Hsue-Shen Tsien (or Qian Xuesen) during the Red Scare in the 1950s. (In the book, Iris noted that Vautrin had graduated with honors from her own alma mater, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.) Iris Chang is best known for two things: writing the explosive bestseller "The Rape of Nanking," and then killing herself. ", Her father patted the tabletop. ". In 1992, at 24, she received a $15,000 award from the MacArthur Foundation, which helped fund the project. The gunsmith told police he had spotted a can of gunpowder in the bag. She spent her childhood in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. Andrew Nickolds obituary. I can never shake my belief that I was being recruited, and later persecuted, by forces more powerful than I could have imagined. Iris Shun-Ru Chang (March 28, 1968 - November 9, 2004) was a Chinese American journalist, author of historical books and political activist.She is best known for her best-selling 1997 account of the Nanking Massacre, The Rape of Nanking, and in 2003, The Chinese in America: A Narrative History. She is best known for her best-selling 1997 account of the Nanking Massacre, The Rape of Nanking. She also focused on human rights. Home Deep Cleaning . He had only recently retired from the family farm in central Illinois that had been in the family for five generations. Those who survived spent the rest of the war in a bleak prison camp; some were shipped to Japan as slave laborers. . When she tried finding books about the subject in Champaign Public Library, she found there were none.[3]. Back in her car, she slipped the gun and owner's manual into a cardboard box labeled "Real Estate Documents" that lay on the passenger seat. Ultimately, three notes were found, all dated Monday, Nov. 8, 2004. To me, it was part of that whole intensity that made Iris able to do what she went on to do. The Highway Patrol then called the Santa Clara Sheriff's homicide unit and detective Sgt. Waking at 5 a.m., Brett saw Iris was gone. It was a Thursday, nine days after her death. Most of the calls were from women, said Betty Hong, executive director of the Oakland clinic. Event on 11/16/04 in San Jose. Christopher R . It may be true that Iris Chang committed suicide. ", Seeing how the survivors lived was as harrowing as hearing their stories. Through a third party, the colonel declined to be interviewed. She passed the iron gates of Calvary Catholic Cemetery, where marble statues of winged angels, their heads bowed in prayer . "My dad was so excited that she was doing this, and so honored.". CHANG2-C-29APR03-DD-HO.jpg I believe that Iris was very strong-willed and whatever she wanted to do, she would do. After two years at Princeton, the family moved to a Midwestern college town, Champaign-Urbana, in Illinois. But it turned out she wasn't sleeping during the day either. . "We are a very close family. I know that my actions will transfer some of this pain to others, indeed those who love me the most. "He made breakfast for me," she said. Whoops! She was trying to be a top-notch mother and she was also trying to prepare for her trip.". After eloquent eulogies by family and friends, a tribute written by U. S. Rep. Michael Honda was recited, which he had read into the Congressional Record earlier that week: "Her fierce pride of her Chinese American heritage empowered others with the certainty that they were truly Americans Our community has lost a role model and close friend; the world has lost one of its finest and most passionate advocates of social and historical justice. After the release from the hospital, she continued to suffer from depression and experienced the side effects of several medications she was taking. -- Was she "the last victim of the Rape of Nanking," plagued and destroyed by the dark histories she illuminated? I sensed suddenly threats to my own life: an eerie feeling that I was being followed in the streets, the white van parked outside my house, damaged mail arriving at my P.O. Meanwhile, Iris was one of a dozen journalism undergraduates chosen for an accelerated Associated Press training program. The medicine made her feel sluggish. Ironically, the very condition that put her career on a slower track has also helped her avoid the emotional and physical burnout that the ambitious Chang experienced during her last year. . "Iris was much in demand and gave many talks," Brett recalled, adding with a laugh, "she was schmoozing the whole time." Rabiner sensed the book would be important and signed Iris to write it. . I will stop by to visit my parents then go for a long walk. Comedy writer who worked on Maureen Lipman's Agony, The Lenny Henry Show, Ed Reardon's Week and Dave Podmore. "Typically, people start losing sleep, then stay up later and later each night. I knew immediately I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.". This post was contributed by a community member. She was best known for her best-selling 1997 account of the Nanking Massacre, The Rape of Nanking. I said, 'You need to go to bed.' Iris Chang, you had done a lot to fully expose the Nanjing Massacre happened 70 years ago. ", The book rocketed Iris into the pantheon of American intellectuals. Johns Hopkins University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Children: Christopher: Spouse: Bretton Douglas Related Document. "First they gave her an antipsychotic, to stabilize her," her mother said. ", Their son, who had turned 2 years old in August, became aware of a change. Soon she exceeded the dreams of every student in the program by getting a book contract from a major publisher while still in school. Iris Chang's many accolades include the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's Program on Peace and International Cooperation Award, the Woman of the Year award from the Organization of Chinese Americans, and two honorary doctorates (the College of Wooster in Ohio, and California State University at Hayward). The water district employee called his supervisor, who called 911. The medicine was probably not right for her.". I didn't really care if I made a cent from it. But the gun jammed. "She's very strong- willed," her mother said. She went to the Chicago Tribune instead, but didn't enjoy "politicking for assignments," Brett said. She walked through the whooshing automatic doors and turned right. Iris called to say she had found Tsien's son and had interviewed him in Mandarin. 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