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Yellowworld.org Mourns Death of Iris Chang

By Chris Chen and Ben Wu | Yellowworld.org
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"I was in my late teens, sitting by my grandmother's sewing machine in her home in the Richmond District of San Francisco and reading my grandfather's collection of Reader's Digests, when I came across her picture on one of the magazines. I quickly flipped to the article inside which described her book, and how it actually spoke of the atrocious killings and rapes committed by Japanese soldiers in the 1930's. And for the first time, I felt empowered, because somebody cared enough to vindicate my grandparents' life story." - anonymous

"...the truly dedicated writer must be willing to risk ostracism or persecution for his or her views. In times of crisis, it takes courage to say what society doesn't want to hear." - Iris Chang, June 2003

One of the bravest voices of Asian America is now silent.

On Tuesday, we at Yellowworld.org were deeply saddened to hear that Iris Chang, best-selling author of the "Rape of Nanking," was found dead in a car just outside of Los Gatos, California in an apparent suicide. She was 36.

Many of us are most familiar with her book, "The Rape of Nanking," whose nightmarish story had only heretofore been made known to us through the fading memories of our grandparents, and one in which the Japanese government to this day has vehemently denied. Yet in "Rape of Nanking," Iris Chang brought us back to to 1937, made us bear witness to the systematic rape, torture and slaughter of over 300,000 Chinese civilians, including women and children.

In "The Chinese in America: A Narrative History," she documents a different kind of persecution less agonizingly graphic and brutal: that of the institional racism suffered by Chinese immigrants in the 19th and early 20th centuries -- but also of their enduring determination to forge better lives.

By uncovering the darkest secrets our history, she was more than a historian; she was an advocate for justice.

By telling our stories, she not only vindicated the lives of our parents, grandparents and ancestors -- firmly cementing their place in American history -- but she captured many of our young spirits as well.

But all of this was not without a price. The empathy that fueled Iris Chang ultimately prevented her from separating her life from the lives and pain she was documenting. When she was writing "Rape of Nanking," she revealed that she suffered from stress and hair loss from having to relive this cruelty on a day-to-day basis. Julie Tang, a superior court judge in San Francisco and co-chair of the Rape of Nanking Redress coalition, said that when she first read "Rape of Nanking," she wondered, "How can anybody endeavor to write about something so horrific and not be affected?"

The severe depression that would soon begin to consume her went seemingly unnoticed to all, save her immediate family -- a cruel and bitter irony: our own symbol of truth was secretely enduring such enormous, hidden pain.

We pledge to pass down her writings to future generations, so that the members of our community will always be informed of the sacrifices of our predecessors, and the struggle that they have endured to attain our current civil liberties.

Thank you, Iris Chang, not only for your contributions to Asian America, but to each one of us.

Memorial services for Iris Chang will be held at 10 a.m. next Friday at Gate of Heaven Cemetery, 22555 Cristo Rey Drive, Los Altos. The family asksthat memorial contributions be made out to the University of Illinois, Iris Chang Scholarship Fund, and sent to the attention of Nancy Casey at the University of Illinois Journalism Department Scholarship Fund, 119 Gregory Hall, 810 S. Wright St., Urbana, Ill. 61801.