Iris Chang: She never was able to find her pause button.
At four, she wrote her first mystery story. By 23, the Chinese-American journalism student had landed a contract to write her first book, about a Chinese missile scientist deported by the US government during the paranoia of the Cold War 1950s.
Six years later, her second book, a truly harrowing account of a massacre that has been called the Chinese Holocaust, was published. The event had been virtually overlooked by the world at large for 60 years.
In The Rape of Nanking Chang investigates in gruesome detail the atrocities that began on December 13, 1937 when the Japanese army captured that city in the Sino-Japanese war preceding World War II. Between 200,000 and 300,000 Chinese - the number is fiercely disputed, with some Japanese nationalists claiming 20,000 or less - were horrifically murdered during a seven-week terror campaign. Thousands of others were tortured. At least 20,000, possibly 80,000, women were raped and many of them were murdered, too.
Chang's story is nightmarish in its descriptions, like a handbook from hell, but since 1997, it has sold half a million copies. Sales weren't harmed by the 29-year-old's beauty, boldness and eloquent outrage.
Her demands that Japan issue an official apology, pay reparations and properly educate future generations about Nanking, infuriated elements in the Japanese government and the extreme Right in Japan. The US State Department also fretted about her effect on diplomatic relations. In one memorable television encounter, she took on the Japanese ambassador.
Then, at 36 - bang! - Chang was gone....
Read entire article at Shelley Gare in the Australian
Six years later, her second book, a truly harrowing account of a massacre that has been called the Chinese Holocaust, was published. The event had been virtually overlooked by the world at large for 60 years.
In The Rape of Nanking Chang investigates in gruesome detail the atrocities that began on December 13, 1937 when the Japanese army captured that city in the Sino-Japanese war preceding World War II. Between 200,000 and 300,000 Chinese - the number is fiercely disputed, with some Japanese nationalists claiming 20,000 or less - were horrifically murdered during a seven-week terror campaign. Thousands of others were tortured. At least 20,000, possibly 80,000, women were raped and many of them were murdered, too.
Chang's story is nightmarish in its descriptions, like a handbook from hell, but since 1997, it has sold half a million copies. Sales weren't harmed by the 29-year-old's beauty, boldness and eloquent outrage.
Her demands that Japan issue an official apology, pay reparations and properly educate future generations about Nanking, infuriated elements in the Japanese government and the extreme Right in Japan. The US State Department also fretted about her effect on diplomatic relations. In one memorable television encounter, she took on the Japanese ambassador.
Then, at 36 - bang! - Chang was gone....