Iris Chang rang the doorbell on Ed Martel's front porch in Kenosha, Wis., on Dec. 4, 2003. She was assigned to the AP office in Chicago. She said she was confronted by a man who said, "You will NOT continue writing this. " box 314, folder 4 . As that November afternoon darkened into evening, the Changs sat at their Danish-modern dining room table and told stories about Iris, speaking sometimes in past tense and sometimes in present tense. "Clearly, Iris was a strong, smart and directed young woman," Rabiner said. Anthony Meldahl, a supply sergeant with the Ohio National Guard who had admired Iris' work. ", Then she wrote a suicide note -- addressed to her parents, Brett and her brother -- followed by a lengthy revision. The couple have lived in California since their marriage. 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. Kamen, the author of three previous books (Feminist Fatale, on Third Wave feminism; Her Way, a study of womens sexuality in the 1990s; and All in My Head, about her years-long struggle with chronic pain), says with Chang as her subject she wanted to focus on the dark side, the complexities and tensions we had with each other.. Those close to Iris had always seen her ups and downs as part of the natural cycle of a brilliant person with intense drive, passionate commitment and a capacity for hard work. . The first draft said: "When you believe you have a future, you think in terms of generations and years. It didn't take him long to propose, but their 1989 engagement stretched out while Brett finished grad school in Urbana. It also showed publishing houses that there is a market for books about the Chinese experience. She had suffered from years of depression and constant sleep deprivation since her bestseller - full title The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War Two - was published in 1997. "Iris was suffering from clinical depression," she said, "and it deepened rapidly over a period of about three months. "He got the job, we went," Mrs. Chang explained. His daughter recalled that in telling Iris this story, he got terribly worked up. "Iris was impatient. But Kamens book, unlike, say, Truth & Beauty, novelist Ann Patchetts controversial memoir of her thorny friendship with the late writer Lucy Grealy, relies very little upon navel-gazing rumination. Tsien left for the People's Republic of China in September 1955. "We are a very close family. Iris Chang, a best-selling author who chronicled the Japanese occupation of China and the history of Chinese immigrants in the United . Though Iris had previously suffered what her parents called "down" periods after bouts of intense exertion, the lows were never as extreme as what befell her in Kentucky. 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 That's why she was such a powerful role model for so many Chinese Americans. She wrote, "The America of today would not be the same America without the achievements of its ethnic Chinese," and that "scratch the surface of every American celebrity of Chinese heritage and you will find that, no matter how stellar their achievements, no matter how great their contribution to US society, virtually all of them have had their identities questioned at one point or another."[12]. She used a post office box, never her home address, for mail. We . During her research, Kamen uncovered secrets that the seemingly always-in-control Chang kept close until near the very end. Later, Iris told interviewers that, as a child, "it was hard for me to even visualize how bad it was, because the stories seemed almost mythical -- people being chopped into pieces, the Yangtze River running red with blood. We arranged for her to come down and stay with me soon," she said. But it turned out she wasn't sleeping during the day either. "He reminded me to eat and to take a walk when I was writing all day, forgetting everything else.". The pool, a turquoise rectangle surrounded by pines, sat at the center of the village-like complex. "Rape of Nanking" became an immediate best-seller and established her as an outspoken advocate for victims of Japanese war crimes. Other parts were not. She was diagnosed with bipolar disorderwhich Chang rejectedjust two weeks before her suicide. As she wrote in the Salon piece, Kamen spoke to Chang by phone a few days before her death and was shocked to hear her normally upbeat friendwhose penchant for hours-long conversations could be exhaustingsound sad and totally drained. Chang ended the conversation by asking Kamen, should anything happen to her, to let people know what she was like before. I got more response [from the Salon piece] than any other articles Ive written combined, Kamen says. . Chang's first book, "Thread of the Silkworm," a critically acclaimed and engrossing study of how Cold War hysteria influenced American foreign policy, tells the ironic story of Dr. Tsien Hsue-shen (). 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. At the same time, her foes said her suicide proved that "Rape of Nanking" was nothing but lies. Iris Chang's many accolades include the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's Program on Peace and International Cooperation Award, the Woman of the Year award from the Organization of Chinese Americans, and two honorary doctorates (the College of Wooster in Ohio, and California State University at Hayward). At 12:40 p.m., she stopped for lunch at FujiSan Sushi in Milpitas Square. "Statement of Iris Chang" stated: I promise to get up and get out of the house every morning. "She had so many bookings, she could easily be on the road for 2 1/2 weeks before coming back home. Her mother hoped Iris would take on a lighter topic for her next book, especially with a baby in the house. Forgive me because I cannot forgive myself.". Iris Chang's coffin was carried to a waiting hearse to be brought to the grave site at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Los Altos. Waking at 5 a.m., Brett saw Iris was gone. The Police Department drafted a missing person's report. ", The book's popularity meant a lengthy book tour. . But, her father said, "In spite of many sessions, Iris did not tell the therapist her deepest thoughts. The book signing will be held at Cupertino Community Hall on Saturday, Aug. 27 from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Well known since its 1997 publication is the global best seller,The Rape of Nanking. We go through her and her husband's (Brett Douglas) house in San jose. Iris Chang interview, Barbara Simpson show, KSFO radio, San Francisco, California 1998 November 8. Their second child, Michael, was born in 1970. "No, no! A poster-size photograph of Iris, lit by candlelight, stood vigil on the lawn of Spangler Mortuary in Los Altos in the early evening of Nov. 18. The first was short, titled "Statement of Iris Chang." I was worried. She helped Iris write a proposal and the project was quickly put under contract. That essay, How Iris Chang Became a Verb, serves as a graceful and insightful eulogy for the best-selling author, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on a lonely stretch of road outside San Jose, California, in November 2004. Later, Brett learned that the nanny had urged Iris to cancel the trip. Brett set up a home gym in the basement and coached her through hourlong workouts with hand weights. Without treatment, the condition worsens over time. Copy photo of Iris Chang with her husband Brett Douglas and their son at his birthday party. A lot of people misunderstood her in that way. "Why did he have to toy with me like that?" The medicine made her feel sluggish. We are lucky -- she could tell me everything she felt. The manager knew her as a customer and an author -- Iris and Brett ate there often. "Days before I left for Louisville I had a deep foreboding about my safety. $ 4.79 - $ 21.29. There are so many kids his age here. @TheJohnRylands. Slowing down, he repeated, "It's interesting. Soon she managed to call her mother. "There's a book I must do," she said. After the release from the hospital, she continued to suffer from depression and experienced the side effects of several medications she was taking. The views expressed in this post are the author's own. The mustache reminded his Japanese captors of "The Little Tramp." After dinner Monday night, Iris returned a call to her agent. At the time of her death, she had been taking the medications Depakote and Risperdal to stabilize her mood.[19]. "I knew writing would be more helpful to me than medicine.". Chang is the subject of the 2007 biography Finding Iris Chang,[1] and the 2007 documentary film Iris Chang: The Rape of Nanking starring Olivia Cheng as Iris Chang. Iris learned to read at age 4. Now, it becomes our treasure. Along with fear for her safety, Iris' illness generated feelings of self- blame. Chang is the subject of the 2007 biography, Finding Iris Chang,[1] and the 2007 documentary film Iris Chang: The Rape of Nanking. "But I woke up at 2 a.m. and she was pacing the hallway," Brett said. Haunted by the belief that she had failed, Vautrin suffered a breakdown in 1940. One month later, on Saturday, Dec. 11, the same elegant photograph of Iris was displayed at a memorial honoring her on the 67th anniversary of the invasion of Nanking. Iris' reluctance to take medication may indicate the difficulty she had accepting her illness as an illness. Iris called to say she had found Tsien's son and had interviewed him in Mandarin. In the end, the war she could not win raged internally. "It's going to be very emotional to talk about Iris in Cupertino," said Chang. Iris Chang always outdid Paula Kamen. He was misled by Iris. Chang said she usually gives three reasons for her unconventional decision to write her daughter's biography: to commemorate Iris, to tell Iris' son, Christopher Douglas, all about the. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate. Newsweek ran an excerpt, and soon Iris was a familiar face on TV news shows. 36 year-old Iris Chang, the prominent Chinese American author and journalist who wrote the best-selling . Would take on a lighter topic for her to come down and stay with like... She stopped for lunch at FujiSan Sushi in Milpitas Square topic for her to come down and stay me! Showed publishing houses that there is a market for books about the Chinese experience Meldahl, a rectangle... 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