Iris Chang was born in Princeton, New Jersey, USA, to parents who had emigrated from China. Author of the 1997 blockbuster “The Rape of Nanking”, Iris came to be greatly in demand as a speaker and interviewee, known for tireless efforts in keeping the memory of the Nanjing Massacre alive at a global level. Iris served as an inspiration to many in Nanjing, so much so that upon her death, survivors of the Massacre held a service at the victims’ memorial hall in Nanjing at the same time as the funeral itself at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Cupertino, California on 12th November 2004.
As would later be revealed, Iris was a sufferer of bipolar disorder. Many had observed Iris’ complete devotion to all on which she would embark. As a writer she put a piece of herself into each story she covered. In everything she undertook, the Iris Chang philosophy was simple; think big. Really big; almost to the point of being naive. It was this drive that would lead her on to incredible accomplishments yet would also ultimately become her undoing.
While the atrocities of World War II have long been a national nightmare in China, receiving due attention from historians and academics over the years, prior to “The Rape of Nanking” little was known of the Nanjing Massacre in most other countries. Utilizing a recently discovered hidden Nazi diary chronicling the massacres in new detail, Iris had the energy, will and engaging writing style to make the subject matter come alive to a populist global audience.
From her extensive travels through China and her challenging of the U.S. government to release long-classified documents, Iris was genuinely shocked at the atrocities she exposed. Her reaction with a pure, honest rage struck a chord with the people of Nanjing that would never wither. “The Rape of Nanking:The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II” was published on the 60th anniversary of the Massacre, and was motivated in part by Iris’ own grandparents’ recollections of their escape from the massacre.
In the coming years Iris was to start work on her forth book, but the stories she unearthed during her research of the Bataan death march, the forcible transfer of POWs by the Imperial Japanese Army in the Philippines during the Second World War, left her sad and totally drained.
Finding herself unable to face the magnitude and controversial nature of the research, in August 2004 Iris suffered a nervous breakdown that left her unable to leave her hotel room in Louisville. With assistance she was hospitalized with paranoia and depression. Her parents believe that the medications she was prescribed worsened her state of mind, inducing suicidal thoughts.
On 15th March 1998, during her closing remarks in a presentation entitled “The Historiography of the Rape of Nanking” made at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., Iris said, “I believe the truth will prevail. The truth is indestructible and the truth recognizes no national boundaries or political allegiances… We, as human beings, have a moral responsibility to seek out the truth… to try to prevent atrocities like the rape of Nanking from ever happening again.”
On 9th November 9, 2004 Iris drove to a remote road south of Los Gatos, California, parked and shot herself in the mouth with a revolver. She was 36, a wife and mother of a two-year-old son.
In 2005, the victims memorial hall at the Nanjing Massacre Memorial added a wing dedicated to the memory of Iris Chang.
