A Fond Farewell to Iris Chang

One of the saddest and most confusing tragedies of recent years was the suicide death of Chinese writer Iris Chang.  Chang was the prominent Chinese American author/journalist who wrote the explosive book "The Rape of Nanking" which exposed Japanese military war crimes during World War II.  This book helped to fuel contemporary, international protest against the record of Japan during a very hard and bitter period of history.  Chang, 36, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in her car by a commuter about 9:00 AM on rural road south of Lost Gatos, CA on November 4th, 2004.  Her family and friends were stunned, shocked, and at a total loss to understand her actions.  No one seemed to know what might have caused her to commit suicide.  Today, the mystery of her death abides with us still.  She was a young woman of energy and passion who successfully channeled  her personal outrage over Japanese war atrocities into a hectic career of writing and lecturing.  Her other works include a history of China's missile program and a chronicle of the Chinese experience in America.

Iris Chang was the intelligent daughter of two university professors who emigrated from China.  She was born in Princeton, New Jersey.  She grew up in the Champagin-Urbana, Illinois area.  This is where she attend University Laboratory High School of Urbana.  She graduated in 1985.  Then she earned a bachelor's degree in journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaing in 1989.  After a brief time at the Associated Press and the Chicogo Tribune she pursued a master's degree in Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University.  It was then she started her influential career as an author.  She lectured and wrote articles for several magazines.  Later she married Bretton Lee Douglas.  He was a man she had met in college.  They had one son, Christopher, who was two years old at the time of his mother's death in 2004.  Iris Chang lived in San Jose, California during the final days of her short life.  We all miss Iris, especially those of us who understood her significant contribution to the Chinese experience.  Years have passed since her death, but her influence remains with us in her writing and words.

Harlan Urwiler

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