She liked to talk, so it's very fun to watch her talking," she said. "I knew writing would be more helpful to me than medicine.". ", Despite support from esteemed historians and journalists, including Stephen Ambrose and George Will, some judged Iris' version of history too subjective. It's a shame these atrocities had to be happened in the hands of Japanese. Iris Shun-Ru Chang was a Chinese-American historian and journalist. Iris Shun-Ru Chang was born March 28, 1968, in Princeton Hospital, on the university campus in New Jersey where her parents were doing postdoctoral work. I can never shake my belief that I was being recruited, and later persecuted, by forces more powerful than I could have imagined. Iris got a massage. "She would just say, matter-of-factly, 'Japan is lying and here's why.' Iris Chang (), before her untimely death, was one of America's leading young historians. in champaign- urbana- 1985 courtesy mr and mrs chang, CHANG_rs1.jpg Author Iris Chang speaks at a panel at the twelfth annual conference of the Committee of 100, at the Waldorf-Astoria, in New York, Saturday, April 26, 2003. She was initially a computer science major, but switched to journalism, earning a bachelor's degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989. The author, who committed suicide nearly 10 years later, saw a graphic photo exhibition of the 1937 Japanese attack on Nanking civilians and felt an urge to publicize the almost-buried atrocity to the world, according to her mother, Ying-Ying Chang. Published by Basic Books on December 1997 (the 60th anniversary of the massacre) and in paperback by Penguin in 1998, "The Rape of Nanking" the first, full-length English-language narrative of the atrocity to reach a wide audience remained on the New York Times bestseller list for several months, became a New York Times Notable Book, and was cited by Bookman Review Syndicate as one of the best books of 1997. "When anybody questioned the validity of what she wrote, she would respond with overwhelming evidence to back it up. 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. The medicine made her feel sluggish. It may be true that Iris Chang committed suicide. They approached the open casket, where they stopped, gazed at her for a final time and bowed three times, in Chinese custom. Generally, there's an apology. He showed her how to load the gun and tried to give her basic safety and handling instructions. "Iris used to say she never understood why people would commit suicide, so she was definitely not a suicidal type," said Chang. "Iris told me now was not the time to go on with the Bataan project. The number of calls to Asian Community Mental Health Services spiked in the days after Iris Chang's death. Iris Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking, ended her life with a pistol on November 9, 2004. I was worried. Please reload the page and try again. She is best known for her best-selling 1997 account of the Nanking Massacre, The Rape of Nanking. Each breath is becoming difficult for me to takethe anxiety can be compared to drowning in an open sea. Finally, the group stood to sing a halting but heartfelt rendition of "Amazing Grace.". According to the police report, Iris phoned a local gunsmith, an antique firearms specialist who did business from his home. It had been the largest U.S. Army surrender in history. CHANG2-C-29APR03-DD-HO.jpg 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. I will stop by to visit my parents then go for a long walk. We didn't see each other as much as we did in the past. So we finally started trying, and then we had our son in 2002. We are lucky -- she could tell me everything she felt. It will extremely ease you to look guide . She got very, very wound up in things," Finkbeiner said. Iris dubbed him the "Oskar Schindler of Nanking.". Now, in THE CHINESE IN AMERICA: A Narrative History (Viking; On-sale Date: April 28, 2003) Chang explores the history of one of this countrys fastest growing ethnic groups. The other diarist -- the "Anne Frank of Nanking" -- was an Illinois woman named Minnie Vautrin. A book packager wanted to publish a children's version of 'The Chinese in America. "The Man Who Ended History", a story in The Paper Managerie by Ken Liu about uncovering the history of Unit 731, is dedicated to the memory of Chang. 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. Photos for a profile of Iris Chang, a prominent author and historian, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Reader's Digest devoted a cover story to her. "She didn't like the idea that she was taking medicine," her father said. "The Chinese in America: A Narrative History" was published by Viking in 2003. The clerk who sold her the gun told investigators Iris had said she collected antique firearms. She's very much a perfectionist. She used a post office box, never her home address, for mail. [19], When you believe you have a future, you think in terms of generations and years. Her book is internationally recognized as the most detailed Western account of the 1937 Nanking . You have a young kid. They told of the time in grade school when Iris decided "if Dear Abby can do it -- I can do it," and she started her own advice column, writing questions and answers. She touched her fingertips to her forehead, then waved her hand to the heavens: "It's because Iris is a dreamer." Iris Chang, you had done a lot to fully expose the Nanjing Massacre happened 70 years ago. After publication of the book, Chang campaigned to persuade the Japanese government to apologize for its troops' wartime conduct and to pay compensation. She would just laugh.". She preferred to meet someone in each town who could introduce her to the veterans and their families. Thread of the Silkworm. The parents of Iris Chang sit close together, their faces drawn. Robert Spencer / The Chronicle MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SF CHRONICLE/ -MAGS OUT. But there was none. A groundswell of interest in the Chinese American community had quickly spread to booksellers and the broader reading public. Home Deep Cleaning . FINDING IRIS CHANG: FRIENDSHIP, AMBITION, AND THE LOSS OF AN EXTRAORDINARY MIND . Home Deep Cleaning - Standard; Home Deep Cleaning - Premium; Home Deep Cleaning - Supreme ", Rabiner, who later became an agent and represented Iris, said, "The book was beyond well reviewed -- it was a mega-best-seller that continues to sell. He had only recently retired from the family farm in central Illinois that had been in the family for five generations. much beloved author of the books: "The Chinese in America" and "The Rape of Nanking" Both were born in mainland China. Sixteen years later, and five days after her death, Brett sat in the living room of the San Jose town home they shared, surrounded by family photos. A local veteran, Arthur Kelly, who was assisting her research helped her check into Norton Psychiatric Hospital in Louisville, where she was diagnosed with reactive psychosis, placed on heavy medication for three days and then released to her parents. "Iris wasn't prepared and her publisher wasn't prepared. Iris ate quickly, asked for green tea to go and charged $15.11 to her credit card. In 1995, at age 27, Chang flew from California to Nanjing in East China's Jiangsu province. But Douglas finally told Kamen that Christopher had been born with the help of a surrogate mother. Success! 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.". Her parents saw her off that morning. Whether it was the CIA or some other organization I will never know. Whether it was the CIA or some other organization I will never know. At Johns Hopkins, Iris studied playwriting, fiction, poetry and science writing. Iris Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking, ended her life with a pistol on November 9, 2004. After brief stints at the Associated Press and the Chicago Tribune, she pursued a master's degree in Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. She harbored hundreds of Chinese women and children there during the occupation. ", Baker explained his conclusion: "There's no evidence that any kind of conspiracy caused her death. As a teacher's assistant, she taught a class in creative writing. She was 36. The Nanking book had "made Iris sad. Worse, Chang had started out as a computer science major and switched with Kamens encouragement. "Though I had heard so much about the Nanking massacre as a child, nothing prepared me for these pictures -- stark black-and-white images of decapitated heads, bellies ripped open and nude women forced by their rapists into various pornographic poses, their faces contorted into unforgettable expressions of agony and shame. ", The book's popularity meant a lengthy book tour. Somehow, she always bounced back, energized by her role as spokesperson for a movement. box 314, folder 4 . turkey club sandwich nutrition Uncovering hot babes since 1919.. christopher douglas iris chang. how long does cyst removal surgery take to heal. 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. He was misled by Iris. We go through her and her husband's (Brett Douglas) house in San jose. Tall and slender, with glossy black hair falling well past her shoulders, Iris emerged from her car wearing blue jeans and sneakers. Similar situation to my own. 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. Chang said she's very grateful to her husband for being extremely supportive in her writing process. "He could tell that she was a lot different after she came back from Louisville. Another said: "Let us thank her parents. They just kept saying, 'We'll print another 10,000, we'll print another 10,000.' We've seen staged suicides and we've seen homicides. "First they gave her an antipsychotic, to stabilize her," her mother said. virginia men's lacrosse roster. The sound of children singing wafted in from the swimming pool nearby. The correspondent was Sgt. "So they tried to make it harder and harder." "Clearly, Iris was a strong, smart and directed young woman," Rabiner said. Her third book, The Chinese in America: A Narrative History (2003),[11] is a history of Chinese Americans, that argues their treatment as perpetual outsiders by American society. That is, successful and invulnerable. It was the first history of Japan's brutal 1937 occupation of China's capital city and documented the weekslong rampage. Iris Shun-Ru Chang (March 28, 1968 - November 9, 2004) was an American author and journalist. "Poetry by Iris Chang" was written in neat cursive on the title page. Opting for a master's degree, she was accepted by the Graduate Writing Seminar at Johns Hopkins University and moved to Baltimore in 1990. They made an appointment to meet Wednesday at the firing range. "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. She wore herself out." The book, "Thread of the Silkworm," was published in 1995. 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. Dive into our most recent stories and exclusive insights from our editors and staff. Speaking of the night they met, Brett said, "Iris was beautiful, vivacious -- and sober. 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. A red tricycle and a jogging stroller flanked the front door. ", Rising from his chair, her father pulled a small red leather volume from the bookshelf. "People who are in great treatment, who have all the love and support in the world, can still commit suicide," Jamison, author of "Understanding Suicide," has said. . "She was very tired," her mother said. Once the Allies won the war, the story was forgotten. @TheJohnRylands. Iris Chang loved life, her mother said: "I want people to know Iris, not just her suicide. She confirmed the danger of psychiatric drugs and antidepressants after reading publications by psychiatrist Peter Breggin, as well as bio-psychiatry researcher and psychiatrist, Martin Teicher. After her own years of research on the interplay of hormones and the brain, Kamen believes that Changs bipolar condition may have been exacerbated by her fertility treatments. [19] Chang was also reportedly deeply disturbed by much of the subject matter of her research. The official cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot. When they were both journalism students in the late 80s at the University of Illinois in Urbana, it was Chang who won the prized internships. Please forgive me. By the time that was done, it was already eight years. Armed Suspect Prompts Lockdown At South Bay Childcare Center, Apple Firing Hundreds Of Contractors: Report, 'Our Planet Live In Concert' 2023: Performing Arts Center, San Jose, Santa Cruz Co. Fairgrounds Foundation All-You-Can-Eat Crab Feed 2023: Watsonville, Mission Valley Chorus All-You-Can-Eat Crab Feed 2023: Campbell, [FREE Event] Get Ready for Senior Year! She just knows how to do things," he said, tenderly smoothing out a page. Some of Changs friends blamed the relentless pace of her work. Their families fled the 1949 Communist revolution and settled in Taiwan, where the two met in high school. "Iris was very loving," Martel's daughter said. Thu 11/8, 7:30 PM, Women & Children First, 5233 N. Clark, 773-769-9299. I believe that Iris was very strong-willed and whatever she wanted to do, she would do. Iris Chang. Iris Chang died on November 9, 2004. The nanny was the only person aware that Iris had been up for three days with no sleep. She was too strong-willed not to.". "It's baffling to me that the U.S. today has so little knowledge of the four months we held out," Martel told The Chronicle by telephone from his home in Wisconsin. "Why did he have to toy with me like that?" At 11:56 a.m., Iris presented her driver's license and counted out $517 in cash -- she was carrying nearly $4,000 -- and left the store with an ivory-handled Ruger "Old Army" .45 replica revolver. And she believed her research produced irrevocable proof of Japanese atrocities. 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 first draft said: "When you believe you have a future, you think in terms of generations and years. She hoped to gain access to a time capsule of audiotapes that was sealed within that tank after the war. But this time, "she appeared unhappy," the manager told investigators. Iris arrived at the gunsmith's at about 2 p.m., carrying a Reed's Sport Shop Bag. "You'll have to forgive me, but I find myself often deeply affected by these stories. Box. Bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, is a mood disorder that affects one in every 70 people. As long as I am alive, these forces will never stop hounding me. His daughter recalled that in telling Iris this story, he got terribly worked up. Chang is the subject of the 2007 biography, Finding Iris Chang,[1] and the 2007 documentary film Iris Chang: The Rape of Nanking. She was 36. What happened to Iris Chang's son? They are the ones who brought her up." Chang dil Stress does not cause mental illness, but it can worsen the symptoms, doctors say. "We weren't really prepared for the success of the book," Brett said. There are aspects of my experience in Louisville that I will never understand. Iris Chang's grave faces west toward wooded hillsides painted with November's glorious reds and yellows, colors of consolation before winter's starkness. "When Iris' condition got really bad, we sent him to stay with my parents in Illinois. The foyer was filled with enormous bouquets sent by well-wishers. "But this time, I had assumed she was sleeping all day after working all night. File photo of Iris Chang and her husband Brett Douglas with Hillary Rodham Clinton. It was obvious she wasn't the same person that she was before," he said. The acclaimed author of The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, who committed suicide on November 9, "felt other people's suffering so intensely, to the point that it made her suffer," said her friend Barbara Masin in a eulogy delivered at a memorial prior to Chang's burial in Los Altos, California. Education "She sat down and cross-examined me like a district attorney for five solid hours," said Martel, 86, one of the last remaining survivors of the Bataan Death March of World War II. " Iris was sometimes teased for her earnestness. Chinese-American journalist and author of historical books, EPILOGUE FOR THE 2011 EDITION - The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University Laboratory High School of Urbana, Illinois, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, Finding Iris Chang: Friendship, Ambition, and the Loss of an Extraordinary Mind, Global Alliance for Preserving the History of WWII in Asia, "How 'Iris Chang' became a verb: A eulogy", "Iris Chang, Who Chronicled Rape of Nanking, Dies at 36", "Ken Liu's The Paper Menagerie, a dazzling collection", "San Jose community briefs for the week of Nov. 8: Chang Park Opens", "San Jose: Iris Chang Park finally set to open next month", "Historian Iris Chang won many battles / The war she lost raged within", "Iris Chang's suicide stunned those she tried so hard to help", "Historian Iris Chang won many battles/The war she lost raged within", Mercury News - Iris Chang Park Ready for its Unveiling, California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives, University of California at Santa Barbara, Inventory of the Iris Chang Papers -Alumni Records, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Iris_Chang&oldid=1141970213, American women journalists of Asian descent, American women writers of Chinese descent, University Laboratory High School (Urbana, Illinois) alumni, Articles containing Chinese-language text, Articles with dead external links from February 2023, Articles with permanently dead external links, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 27 February 2023, at 20:46. This is for the biographers., Suicide, Kamen observes, is in a lot of ways the ultimate act of control. And that really took its toll on her, too.". It's a date he won't forget. On August 31, 2002, Christopher Douglas, their son, was born. Liz Mangelsdorf / The Chronicle, iris chang at Bataan tank in wisconsin courtesy of the bataan commenorative research project, Iris Chang at 7 years old courtesy the chang family, iris changs senior picture from university high After her own years of research on the interplay of hormones and the brain, Kamen believes. Iris Chang. Homicide detectives would eventually determine that Iris had loaded all six chambers of the gun, placed the barrel between her lips, and fired. In her book, Kamen recalls how Chang approached an editor on one of her first days at the U. of I.s Daily Illini and asked simplywithout small talk or polite conversationHow do I get your job? "It's been too short.". She walked through the whooshing automatic doors and turned right. "I spent several hours with each one, getting the details of their experiences on videotape. Kamen says that despite her worldliness, Chang never developed the distancing filters that aid many journalists. After Iris Chang's Oldsmobile was found off Highway 17 on Tuesday morning, Nov. 9, the California Highway Patrol was called to the scene. Event on 11/19/04 in Los Altos Hills Eric Luse / The Chronicle Ran on: 11-20-2004 "I'd left a message -- I actually had business to talk about. So you see, she was really a fighter. His daughter, Maddy, remembered the day well, too. It was later discovered that she had left behind three suicide notes each dated November 8, 2004. "Iris can be a loner; it doesn't bother her." For Asian Americans to write nonfiction about Asia or Asian America was relatively new. That afternoon, she checked herself in to Norton Psychiatric Hospital in Louisville, with help from the colonel. "In the past, when Iris was working on something, she might work for 48 hours straight and then she would crash for 20 hours, and then she'd be back up, working again," Brett said. Kamen coined the phrase to Iris Chang it years before her friends death. But for us to be able to write nonfiction, the stories of our lives -- on a lot of levels, it was revolutionary. 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. He thought Iris was improving.". It seemed like a lot of odd behavior started around that time, Kamen says. They lived on a leafy country road named Einstein Drive. ", He added, sadly, "I think if we had, I would have noticed earlier that things were going wrong.". We'll be sending you The Daily Reader starting soon. He established an International Safety Zone in Nanking before the Japanese soldiers arrived from Shanghai. Liz Mangelsdorf / The Chronicle. My friends and I would joke about the obituary assignments at a paper being the stiffs page. I could never picture her having any kind of irony like that about her work., Kamen herself says that diving into the darker reaches of Changs life was frightening at first. "I had to write it, if it was the last thing I ever did in my life. Sunday morning, they drove to Santa Cruz for lunch on the pier, then went to her favorite spa, Chaminade -- a 300-acre mission-style resort, surrounded by redwoods and eucalyptus, in the Santa Cruz Mountains. ", Iris' parents retired in early 2001, and after Christopher was born, they moved from Illinois and into a home in the same complex. But, her father said, "In spite of many sessions, Iris did not tell the therapist her deepest thoughts. But it turned out she wasn't sleeping during the day either. "For three days they gave her medication, the first time in her life." The first was John Rabe, a German member of the Nazi party who was living in the Chinese capital in 1937. But all of them wanted the opportunity to talk about the massacre before their deaths. She passed the football field and the blocky, concrete auditorium of James Lick High School. Some 8,000 died on the notorious "death march." Books by. Iris Chang (Author, . She came alive before crowds -- she loved to share, and she was interested in other people's lives. She knew that in California, she could purchase a relic immediately and avoid the 10-day waiting period necessary with other guns. The Memorial Hall, which collects documents, photos, and human remains from the massacre, added both a wing and a bronze statue dedicated to Chang in 2005. So she went back to bed and I watched her until she fell asleep.". Doctors at Norton Hospital had diagnosed "brief reactive psychosis," her father said. She told him she had not asked for instructions when she bought the gun. In the final version, she added: "There are aspects of my experience in Louisville that I will never understand. ", During two years of research, Iris made significant historical discoveries. "Tell me why you want to tell the story.". Now author of the deceased writer's biography, The Woman Who Could Not Forget, Chang is scheduled to have a book signing at from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday. So she took a little bit and then she stopped -- and it shouldn't be stopped like that. Another person Chang said she should thank most is Richard Rhodes, who wrote the book's introduction. "This was something of a roots venture for her -- to reconnect with the country that her family had drifted off from," said UC Berkeley's Schell. On Saturday night they went to dinner at Fresh Choice and out to the movies. "We went to see 'Ray,' " Brett said. That night, she had dinner with her husband of 13 years, Brett Douglas. He stopped and honked but there was no response. Iris Chang interview, Barbara Simpson show, KSFO radio, San Francisco, California 1998 November 8. "It was family lore. Chang had returned to World War II for the book she was working on when she died, interviewing survivors of the Bataan Death March who were, like the Chinese, demanding an official apology from the Japanese government. "Every time we set a rule, she always tried to find some way to get around it. "Michael is very outgoing, very extroverted -- Iris is different," said Mrs. Chang. She just seemed to be more driven and to have more zest for life than anyone I'd ever met. In three days, her parents came to take her home. Iris Shun-Ru Chang (Hanzi tradisional: . Waking at 5 a.m., Brett saw Iris was gone. She was an able journalist, but she allowed herself to become deeply involved emotionally in her subjects, which gave her accessibility. Tsien left for the People's Republic of China in September 1955. Comedy writer who worked on Maureen Lipman's Agony, The Lenny Henry Show, Ed Reardon's Week and Dave Podmore. They married in 1964, and each earned a doctorate from Harvard in 1967. "She should not have gone.". Pearl Harbor was still smoldering when Japanese planes bombed the Philippines' Bataan Peninsula, where Martel was stationed with a National Guard tank battalion. For the Wisconsin trip, she had hooked up with people from the Bataan Commemorative Research Project, a historical archive and Web site created by faculty and students at Proviso East High School in Maywood, Ill. "World War II hit the town of Maywood really hard," said Ian Smith, chair of the school's history department. Chang's son, Christopher (born with the help of a surrogate mother), has been diagnosed as autistic specifically Asperger's disorder, a mild form. The book with both Chang's and Rhodes' names on its cover has sold more copies than expected and received positive reviews, including one in the Wall Street Journal, since its launch in May. "She had so many bookings, she could easily be on the road for 2 1/2 weeks before coming back home. ", Rabiner became worried, too. She had worn herself out on a book tour for the paperback release of The Chinese in America and spent some time in a mental health ward in Kentucky in August 2004. In the end, the war she could not win raged internally. There are so many kids his age here. Looking back, Chang said she thinks Iris was just a workaholic who needed a break, and should have slept and eaten more, instead of taking psychiatric drugs. Copy photo of Iris Chang with her husband Brett Douglas and their son at his birthday party. On a cloudy Monday morning in early November, author Iris Chang, 36, drove her white 1999 Oldsmobile Alero down Alum Rock Avenue toward the green foothills of East San Jose. "Iris wanted to talk, and I said, 'You should go to bed, it's 2 in the morning.' Event on 11/16/04 in San Jose. "Iris was a phenomenon," said one of her former teachers at Johns Hopkins, Ann Finkbeiner. At the Gate of Heaven Catholic Cemetery in Los Altos Hills, the photograph stood on an easel before the chapel. "They drop so fast," the letter had read. "I believe Iris in heaven would want me to do this, to channel my sadness into something positive.". There's a stigma within the culture about accessing care, because then people will think there is something wrong with you and your family. 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