Iris Chang (1968-2004)

Chang died of 'self inflicted gunshot wounds'- and the cause of her suicide is said to be severe depression. The author of the fantastic The Rape of Nanking, which Putu highly recommends was working on a new book which looked at American POWs tortured in Japan. Her book outraged many Japanese, both ordinary people as well as academics, but remains the most readable, if harrowing account of the Japanese occupation. Do read this fascinating 2003 interview with Chang. One of the interesting things she says is that the rape of Nanking was not the worst massacre of a people in history, and points to the Bangladesh war. Also she makes the point that 19-35 million Chinese died in WWII- that's a huge huge number of people...and yet when we hear about WWII we remember the concentration camps and maybe St. Petersburg...it's curious and frightening how some people can get 'written out' of histories.